A lack of schools and childcare centres in Williams Landing is forcing parents to sell up and move out of the area.

In a 158-signature petition presented at last week’s Wyndham Council meeting, the Residents of the Suburb of Williams Landing group asked for a school to be built in the suburb “as soon as possible”.

Group representative Aaron An said he had been forced to send his two-year-old daughter to childcare in the Docklands — some 23km away — due to a lack of facilities.

“There are a lot of families moving to this suburb and the pressure is really building up,” Mr An said.

Two schools nearby — St Clare’s Primary School in Truganina South and Truganina P-9 College — are due to open in 2015.

Labor pledged to buy land and build a senior school in Point Cook and a primary school in Davis Creek if it won the state election.

Will Jiang and his wife had their first child four weeks ago and have decided to leave due to Williams Landing’s poor education facilities.

Mr Jiang, 32, said three other friends, who all moved to the suburb nearly four years ago, were also getting out.

“Williams Landing has a lot of potential, but ... it is taking too long (for schools to be built) and we can’t afford to wait any longer,” Mr Jiang said.

“We think, slowly, people will move out when they have kids.” - Will Jiang.

“We have already started thinking about this issue (education) because all the childcare centres around here are fully booked.”

A study conducted by the residents’ group suggests there are between 600 and 1000 school or childcare-aged children in Williams Landing, and that number could balloon to as many as 4000 in the years to come.

Councillor Heather Marcus said the council would “make sure” the State Government understood the desperate need for schools in Wyndham.

Wyndham Leader sent a request for comment to the Department of Education and Early Childhood Development (DEECD), who forwarded the request to the Labor and Liberal parties.

Both parties failed to respond.

Source: https://www.heraldsun.com.au/leader/news/a-lack-of-schools-and-childcare...