Call to action: Principal of St John's primary School Marian Bell hopes to revive Riverstone. Picture: Carlos Furtado
It’s a question on the minds of many Riverstone residents: how to make the suburb vibrant and one of choice?
Principal of St John’s Primary School, Marian Bell, has organised a public meeting to discuss the future of Riverstone.
She said concern for the dwindling number of enrolments at the school sparked the project, with about 60 less students at the school compared to five years ago.
‘‘Statistics are telling us that there are more primary school-aged children living in Riverstone than attend the Riverstone schools,’’ she said.
‘‘Why are people looking outside of the area for education?
‘‘When I started to talk to some of the community members it just gained momentum.’’
Mrs Bell said conversations with local business people also uncovered concern at how quiet the suburb had become and fears the planned overpass at Garfield Road would add to the problem.
‘‘The essence of the meeting is what can we do as a community to promote Riverstone in the meantime,’’ Mrs Bell said.
‘‘I think that we need to promote ourselves better than we do and I hope that at the meeting on Tuesday maybe a working party will come from that.’’
Mrs Bell said attendees would include people who had ‘‘lived here all their lives and love the township ... and are now looking at the deterioration of the suburb’’.
The meeting is on Tuesday, October 23 at the St John’s Primary School hall, 5 McCulloch Street, Riverstone, at 7.15pm. RSVP: mbell@parra.catholic.edu.au.