• Footscray, Yarraville, Braybrook Star

By Charlene Gatt

10th February 2009 11:07:03 AM

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YARRAVILLE’S Clare Court childcare centre will receive a $2.85 million upgrade and extension thanks to a funding boost from all three tiers of government.

The extension will take up some of the centre’s open space to create another 52 childcare places in the municipality by late 2010.

The Federal Government is contributing $1.6 million to the upgrade, while Maribyrnong City Council ($750,000) and the Victorian Government ($500,000) also chipped in.

Member for Gellibrand Nicola Roxon said the funding had been a long time coming. “It’s obviously a very good childcare centre already but with the waiting lists in the area this is needed,” she said. “It won’t fix everything, but it will make a difference.”

The upgrade is part of the first phase of the Federal Government’s 2007 commitment to fix up or build 260 early learning and childcare centres across the state.

Five of those, including Clare Court, are in the City of Maribyrnong. A total of 543 children are on the council’s waiting list for a spot in one of the eight community-based services that are on the council’s central register. The figure does not include waiting lists for private childcare centres at Victoria University’s childcare facilities.

Mayor Michael Clarke said the demand for childcare would escalate as long as the City of Maribyrnong’s demographics continued to get younger. He said centres like Clare Court were ideal “one stop shops” where families could access maternal care, childcare and kindergarten facilities.

Maribyrnong CEO Kerry Thompson said it was unclear how much disruption the works will cause to the day-to-day running of the centre.

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