Govt to weigh up pros and cons of Victory's planned Epsom school campus

With the date for lodging a submission on the plans now expired, the Department of Transport and Planning is considering the application while taking into account local residents' concerns which mainly centre around the expected increase in traffic and drainage at the site.

"Formal advertising for the proposed Victory College development has just concluded and the application is currently being considered by the Department of Transport and Planning," a department spokesperson said.

Victory Christian College wants to build new school buildings at the corner of Sargeants Road and the Midland Highway at Epsom, to cater for students from prep to year 12.

The development would involve a new car park, bus drop-off zone, new sporting fields, classrooms and administration buildings and would service an increase in students currently travelling to Victory's Strathdale campus from Epsom, Eaglehawk, Jackass Flat and Huntly areas.

The application received eight submissions from the public with locals raising concerns about the impacts to the road networks, site drainage and impacts on flooding, noise from students, and location of proposed driveway entrances.

Lindsay Sargeant, whose family has lived and worked on Sargeants Road for generations, said he believed the site was not suitable for a school.

"The issues for the community down there is the potential for increased flooding," he said.

"The site I think is incorrect and is not good enough for a school, for people getting access during floods.

"People talk about climate change and increased flooding and it (the proposed school) really doesn't cater for that."

Epsom and Huntly were badly affected by floods early in January, which caused flash flooding, road closures and debris to enter creeks.

Mr Sargeant said housing developments and more buildings in Epsom had caused water to flood the suburb quicker and with more damage.

"What we're finding is because of all the harder areas and development - there's the roads, the roofs, compacted areas - the water is getting down quicker, it's running quicker and it's scouring areas out in the creeks," he said.

"There's no maintenance being carried out on the creeks, they're an absolute disgrace. It's just a situation where it's just going to get worse and worse unless some serious action is taken."

Mr Sargeant said flooding in the area had impacted the water table, causing saline issues and the growth of weeds.

He said the school would "be confronted with" those issues if they built on the impacted soil.

"They may develop it, but they'll be paying for it in the long term," Mr Sargeant said.

"Being a saline area, you've got salinity issues with buildings and infrastructure."

Concerns the school would increase flooding impacts in the suburb were addressed by Victory principal Anne Marie Rodgers, who said the school's ovals would be built at the Station Street side of Sargeants Road, which was more prone to flooding from the Bendigo Back Creek.

The City of Greater Bendigo's planning scheme showed the eastern half of the school's proposed site was in the Land Subject to Inundation overlay, while the half where the building's would be was not.

Resident Mick Allen lives across the site from where the school would be built.

He said he didn't have any major concerns with the school being built, although increased traffic could cause problems.

"It looks like they are doing the right thing by flooding," Mr Allen said.

"The buildings are not going to be on floodplains which is good. It's not going to make it (flooding) any better, but it won't make it any worse."

Mr Allen said his objection to the proposal was based on the location of a school driveway on Station Street.

"I emailed the principal about the driveway which is directly opposite my house," he said.

"Turning left is okay. There's not a problem until I'm trying to turn right.

"I just asked that their driveway be moved 20 metres and some extra hedging put in so we don't hear the bin trucks all the time."