We, the undersigned, call upon Blacktown City Council to reconsider its proposal of renaming part of Schofields outlined by the new Suburb boundaries as Area 12 (Rothwell Downs, Grevillea Grove or Dirrabari) in the Public Exhibition document, File No: 16-14-1.

--- Extract from the Blacktown City Council Public Exhibition
Naming of new suburbs in Blacktown City
Exhibition Period: 6 April, 2017 to 19 May, 2017
File No: 16-14-1
Contact Officer: Strategic Planning

"Council is seeking feedback on a proposal to name 11 new suburbs in Blacktown’s North West Priority Growth Area. The new suburbs will be created alongside the existing suburbs of Colebee, Marsden Park, Schofields, Shanes Park, Riverstone, Rouse Hill and Vineyard, which are proposed to be retained with reconfigured boundaries. This would result in a total of 19 suburbs across the Growth Area, representing a population of over 150,000 people.

Potential new suburb names are on public exhibition until 19 May 2017. We encourage you to view the proposal and indicate your preferences. 

Revised suburb boundaries are also proposed

As part of the proposal to name the new suburbs, Council is also seeking feedback on minor boundary variations to the previously identified suburb areas of Marsden Park, Riverstone and Rouse Hill. The changes will ensure that key historical, cultural and strategic sites are retained within the established suburb areas that bear their name." ---

I encourage you and your families to sign this petition to keep Schofields in our suburb name or a name linked to our current area. Any other feedback, please add it to the 'I'm signing because...' section as this will become visible at the bottom of the post.  I intend to submit this to council by the deadline date of 19 May 2017.

As a resident of Schofields (Area 12);

• I identify living in the actual suburb named Schofields and our community is already established in Area 12. The land in Area 12 is currently undergoing development with a number of new homes recently completed. The suburb name is of significant importance for the many residents that have already committed to building their homes here - and future residents too.
• The suburb of “Schofields” has developed a good reputation through new development in the suburb, a new train station on the Western line, a well-established primary and secondary school, and the Woolworths supermarket.
• There is a concern the change in suburb names will negatively impact property prices and also impact insurance premiums.
• The Schofields train station is located in close proximity to Area 12 and would not seem practical that Area 12 is not aligned with “Schofields”, as people in Area 12 will identify themselves as being part of Schofields.
• For one of the proposed new suburb names; Rothwell Downs, there is another suburb called Rothwell in QLD. This may cause confusion. The word ‘Downs’ sounds like the area is ‘low’ and could impact the perception of the area, and further impact property prices.
• I would prefer a suburb name that contains ‘Schofields’ or a suburb name that has a connection to the current area. This would make the ‘new proposed suburb’ easy to identify by the community.

Whilst I respect the newly proposed suburb names, there is no identifiable connection to the existing suburb name or the area that we currently live in. I understand the overall suburb is growing in size, and a change of suburb boundaries may be required, however we request Blacktown City Council to reconsider its proposed names for Area 12 and maintain Schofields within the naming process or propose a name that has an easily identifiable connection with the current area.

Proposed suburb names which exclude “Schofields” could incorporate the streets/roads which are within/alongside the proposed suburb boundaries, such as the proposed names in Area 10 that were selected to reflect the “original and widely recognised road in the proposed suburb area”.

I refer to similar changes which have taken place regarding suburb naming and the importance of the name selected in nearby areas:

• The Hill’s council had a recent proposal on exhibition to rename two areas to ‘North Kellyville’ and ‘Norwest’ – it is my understanding that both names were chosen to reflect names that have been widely used by the community for these areas. This follows previous proposals to rename parts of Kellyville to ‘Bella Vista Meadows’ or ‘Balmoral Hills’ that were not successful.
• It’s my understanding that in recent years when the Blacktown Council boundary of 'Kellyville' was renamed to 'Kellyville Ridge', feedback provided at this time was to retain the name 'Kellyville' in the suburb name. The name Vinegar Hill was also proposed for this area and was not successful.
• ‘Bungarribee’ was chosen as the name for a new suburb in Blacktown, which is on the site of the Bungarribee property. ‘Bungarribee’ was easy to identify to this area, not only through the association with the property, but also as by the well-known road that leads to the suburb is called “Bungarribee Road”.

Suggested names could include (but not limited to):

• Schofields Gardens (connected to the existing name and reflects the market gardens that once dominated the area)
• Schofields Rise
• The Avenue (to reflect Alex Avenue which runs through the proposed suburb, and the name used for the Mirvac development on Alex Avenue. The majority of Area 12 has also been referred to as the ‘Alex Avenue Precinct’).
• The Fields (taken partly from the name ‘Schofields’ and to reflect the meadows / pastures that are currently present on the undeveloped land in the area. Also the name used for one of the developments on Alex Avenue).
• Hambledon Rise (well-known road that runs alongside the proposed suburb boundary)
• Alex Gardens (to reflect the main street that runs through the suburb and the market gardens that once dominated the Schofields area)

This petition will be delivered to:

The General Manager
Blacktown City Council