School seeks $25mn compensation to rebuild playing fields

Sydney, March 2 (IANS) A school in Australia’s Brisbane city has sought $25 million as compensation from the Brisbane City Council to rebuild its playing fields.

Years after losing a huge tract of land to the Inner City Bypass, Brisbane Grammar School, one of the city’s elite private schools, is facing the resumption of another oval to the Brisbane’s newest tunnel – Northern Link tunnel, known as Legacy Way, the Courier-Mail reported.

The proposed tunnel will run five km providing two two-lane links to the Airport Link and ultimately through to the Brisbane Airport. It is planned to open in the second half of 2014.

The Brisbane Grammar School Board of Trustees’ chairman, Howard Stack, in a letter to parents said what would be left of the playing fields after the second resumption would be ‘virtually worthless to us’.

Stack said Queensland Rail had approved the school’s engineering design for the new fields but the issue of funding was still being fought out with the council in the Land Court.

The matter is listed for review and directions Friday.