PARENTS and guardians of Perch Community High School in east Honiara yesterday signed a petition against a seven-day demolition notice issued to them by the Honiara City Council on 7th September and will expire on 14th September 5:30pm tomorrow.
A similar notice, which demanded the demolition of part of the school’s fence and library building, was issued to the school in August 2016.
The parents and guardians have teamed up to stand against the move after attending a short meeting organised by the school.
Last week the HCC again gave the school seven days to demolish the fence and the library building, claiming the building and structures failed to comply with HCC building code and the local planning scheme since some of the structures trespassed on the areas designated for public road reserve and some encroached on another land block(Lot 2485 of parcel number 192-007-039) belonging to other tenants.
The gate in question and authorities determined as encroaching onto public road reserve is obvious to any person to see since it is just infront of the public highway.
The High Court in civil case number 46 of 2016 was also involved and made an order to the effect that a qualified engineer was required to survey the school, whose report is available to the school authorities to read and digest.
The civil engineer’s report clearly recommended rectification of the anomalies.
The Civil engineer’s report says three boundary pegs of land registration number 192-007-214 of Lot 2368 “is clearly seen to be encroaching into the existing road reserve of the two lane road”.
A document of over 60 pages pertaining to the issue has been availed to this newspaper.
One now wonders who is really doing things for the interest of children, the school authority or the HCC and all else aside even children know that Ranadi is an industrial area and a refuse dumping ground.
Parents of children at the school and the teachers are still adamant and one parent said:
“If they fail to consider our petition, we will arrange a peaceful protest to demonstrate that we are disappointed with the decision.”
Another parent said that the students of this school are the future human resources of this country and authorities should take a good look at this before making any decision like that.
“Let us come together and stand against that notice by signing this letter,” he said.
School director Lydia Yeo told the Solomon Star that the decision to close down the school was because they were giving up and tired of all these decisions by authorities to demolish the fence and the school’s library building.
“We have tried to make things for the students but yet all these authorities always telling lies to us,” she said.
“The approval of the fence to be built was signed by the same person from HCC and yet he is again signing a seven-day notice to demolish the fence and the school library.
Ms Yeo said that these authorities never stick to their promises.
“I am tired of this attitude.
“We wasted all our money doing things for the benefits of the human resource of this country, but they never realized that.
“We have been struggling for more than two years to implement our plans for the school, but yet they continue to intimidate us.
“This is beyond understanding.”
She said since she started the school, she continues to received notices and criticism from authorities until today.
By LESLEY SANGA
