Lambton High School parents are gearing up to fight Newcastle's new basketball stadium being built on the ovals where their children play sport and study PE.
"We're against it, yes," the school's Parents and Citizens group secretary, Jacqui Young, said on Wednesday after news emerged that Newcastle Basketball had lodged a scoping report for the stadium.
The Newcastle Herald reported on Saturday that the basketball association had started the development application process for the stadium on Wallarah and Blackley ovals beside Lambton High.
It hopes to start building in 2025 if the state planning minister approves what is classified as a state significant development.
The stadium and its car park will take up almost all of the two playing fields if approved.
The high school has 1200 students and rents the council-managed Crown land as a playground and sports space.
The P&C conducted a survey in July which found 83 per cent of parents and carers opposed the stadium being built next to the school and 55 per cent rated the stadium's impact on their children as "major", or 10 out of 10 on a sliding scale.
A total of 372 people responded to the survey.
"The P&C and the community have quite a few concerns, but the main ones are around the impact it has directly on the students' sport and PDHPE [Personal Development, Health and Physical Education]," Ms Young said.
"I think the current proposal is that we may be left with three quarters of a soccer field.
"There's no other area where we can expand to.
"I think it's been suggested we could use the fields that are further west, however, by the time you get your gear and you get a class to walk up to that intersection and set up you've impeded on lesson time.
"You're now asking students to cross a street. It's not an effective use of time."
Wallsend MP Sonia Hornery said this week that she opposed the stadium's proposed location because of its impact on the school, the sports clubs that use the grounds, parking and drainage.
Ms Young said the P&C had not been consulted before Newcastle Basketball joined with Lake Macquarie MP Greg Piper and City of Newcastle lord mayor Nuatali Nelmes in announcing the stadium's location in March, three days before the state election.
"No, we weren't. It was sort of like, oh, OK, it's been announced," she said.
"That's what triggered us to get the survey out. We reached out to the basketball association, too.
"Our concern is if the proposal gets to a point where it costs money to contest when we weren't consulted up front."
The former Coalition state government granted Newcastle Basketball $25 million in 2019 to build the stadium in Hillsborough, but the Hunter and Central Coast Regional Planning Panel rejected the proposal due to traffic concerns.
Ms Young said Lambton High had an increasing number of demountable classrooms taking up room on an already cramped campus.
"Are we adding to a bit of anxiety if people can't get enough space?" she said.
"Mobile phones have been removed from school grounds, which is fair enough, but it's a conflicting message to take away grounds from students when you're encouraging them to interact and be a bit more active."
She was also concerned about a major construction project disrupting lessons.
The P&C plans to lodge a submission opposing the development application.
"The basketball stadium needs updating. It's long overdue, and it's a sport that needs support, but we're concerned about the positioning and the size of the proposal," Ms Young said.
