Last week I signed council’s final document which is a lease of a brand new building for the new Playmates Cottage Childcare Centre. This document is a symbol of people power at its finest. It signals the end of a struggle where mums and dads stared down an all-powerful bureaucracy.

It is certainly a document that signals that every now and then citizens can, and will, say to politicians that they will not be treated like fools. The Playmates Cottage saga goes back over 30 years. Back then the old Dubbo Hospital asked the then Dubbo City Council to facilitate the building of a childcare centre immediately next to the hospital. The community got behind the Council and assisted in fund raising. Playmates Cottage was born with the simple, yet novel idea, that hospital workers need quality reliable childcare.

Over the years the parent management committee expanded their services to also be the very first port of call for children at risk when emergency childcare is needed.

This not-for-profit community run centre has a 30 plus year history of pure excellence. Then came the announcement by the former independent MP Dawn Fardell, of a major redevelopment and expansion of the hospital. The management committee were obviously very pleased to hear this news.

Fast forward a few more years, politicians changed and the wheels of the bureaucracy slowly turned. With that, more detailed plans for the hospital site were put in black and white.  Those plans revealed that Playmates Cottage was simply not included in the redevelopment. Multiple discussions were had with hospital administrators with the hope that they would include the childcare centre into the plans for new hospital. The answer was no. Discussions were had with our local politicians and again, the answer was no. By this stage, the issue was well and truly on the agenda of Dubbo City Council. A number of Councillors were particularly concerned about the use of community funds and giving money or charity to hospitals. They believed that if this travesty actually happened, local communities would always question that if they raised money and provided facilities to hospitals, would their hard work be knocked down in the future? A number of Councillors came to me and asked if I could attend a management committee meeting at Playmates. At that meeting, I offered to assist in their representations to the Government. After a number of meetings, including one particularly nasty one, it was evident there was simply no plan for Playmates Cottage. They were expected to pack up and get out at the end of their lease.

This was particularly shocking because local hospital workers themselves were furious with the attitude. The Playmates Committee had to get political. Bumper stickers and t-shirts were printed, the media was contacted and most importantly a petition was drawn up. After gathering in excess of 10,000 signatures the matter went directly to the NSW State Parliament. The opposition used the matter as a way to embarrass their opponents. Backbench Upper House members even expressed their concerns about the lack of empathy for parents and community in Dubbo. It was at that stage when parents investigated and found surplus council land that would suit construction of a new Playmates Cottage. Council agreed and the land was offered for free for the building of a new centre. That led to an about face in bureaucratic attitude. The back-down agreement was that the centre will be paid for by the NSW Government on council owned land and council will lease the new building to Playmates at a similar rate to what Playmates now pays to the hospital.

Last week I had the pleasure of being able to sign the new lease agreement. So to the parents and community members, who stood against a cold bureaucracy - thankyou.