Private schools upset Palmiste residents

Rad­hi­ca De Sil­va

El­der­ly res­i­dents of Palmiste are call­ing on au­thor­i­ties to in­ves­ti­gate two pri­vate Montes­sori schools op­er­at­ing in their res­i­den­tial Block 1 com­mu­ni­ty, com­plain­ing of per­sis­tent traf­fic con­ges­tion and noise which they say have dis­rupt­ed their qui­et en­joy­ment of their homes.

Re­tired school prin­ci­pal Harold Ram­goolam, who lives di­rect­ly be­hind one of the schools, said the con­stant ac­tiv­i­ty has made it im­pos­si­ble for him to en­joy his prop­er­ty.

“The play­ground is just a few feet from my fence. There is con­tin­u­ous noise dur­ing school hours, ve­hi­cles com­ing and go­ing, and par­ents block­ing the road­way,” Ram­goolam said, adding that as a long-time ed­u­ca­tor he sup­ports ed­u­ca­tion but be­lieves it must be con­duct­ed in ap­pro­pri­ate zones.

Res­i­dents have erect­ed signs on their gates de­clar­ing their “right to en­joy­ment of prop­er­ty” and have for­mal­ly writ­ten to the Town and Coun­try Plan­ning Di­vi­sion, Min­istry of Plan­ning and De­vel­op­ment, South Re­gion­al Of­fice, ob­ject­ing to the in­tend­ed op­er­a­tion of a school at Block 1, Palmiste.

Nei­ther of the schools had names dis­played at the front of the build­ings.

Gary Saney, an­oth­er res­i­dent, said a pe­ti­tion bear­ing 137 sig­na­tures was sub­mit­ted to the au­thor­i­ties in sup­port of ear­li­er com­plaints filed in June and Au­gust 2023.

“We are not against chil­dren or ed­u­ca­tion, but this is not a des­ig­nat­ed school zone. The roads were not de­signed for this lev­el of traf­fic,” Saney said.

An­oth­er res­i­dent, who re­quest­ed anonymi­ty, al­so ex­pressed con­cern about in­creased se­cu­ri­ty risks due to un­fa­mil­iar ve­hi­cles en­ter­ing the neigh­bour­hood dai­ly, as well as the po­ten­tial for ac­ci­dents dur­ing stu­dent drop-off and pick-up times. They warned that al­low­ing an­oth­er school to op­er­ate would wors­en ex­ist­ing chal­lenges.

In a pe­ti­tion signed by res­i­dents since 2023, res­i­dents said Block 1 Palmiste is a strict­ly res­i­den­tial com­mu­ni­ty gov­erned by covenants in the Head Lease which pro­hib­it the use of any dwelling house for trade, busi­ness or any pur­pose oth­er than as a pri­vate res­i­dence.

Res­i­dents said Clause 10 of the Head Lease ex­press­ly for­bids com­mer­cial op­er­a­tions, in­clud­ing schools, with­in the de­vel­op­ment. They ar­gued that any con­ver­sion of a pri­vate res­i­dence in­to a school would con­tra­vene both the covenants and the Town and Coun­try Plan­ning Act.

Res­i­dents are urg­ing the Town and Coun­try Plan­ning Di­vi­sion to in­ves­ti­gate.

One of the prin­ci­pals of the af­fect­ed Montes­sori schools told Guardian Me­dia that the in­sti­tu­tion has out­grown its cur­rent lo­ca­tion and will be re­lo­cat­ing.

Guardian Me­dia con­tact­ed Ed­u­ca­tion Min­is­ter Dr Michael Dowlath and is await­ing his re­sponse.