The Teddy Bears childcare centre is not impeding ESA work and the owner wants to move, Emergency Services Commissioner Peter Dunn said today.
At a press conference Commissioner Dunn said the centre’s owner, Mark Gillett, had already expressed a desire to move and that the ESA had said in that case they would be more than happy to occupy the space left. He later said that Mr Gillett had already made moves to set up another facility.
This contrasts with Mr Gillett’s view that he is being pushed out of the ESA headquarters in Curtin because it has been labelled a “terrorist threat”.
Commissioner Dunn said the issue at hand is an “incompatible relationship”, not any terror threat although he did not deny he had said the area was a terrorist target.
“We do need to control access to the building and that’s going to cause problems for other tenants,” he said. “It’s inconsistant with locking down the building to have a childcare centre next door.”
He said that on a day-to-day basis it was fine to have the childcare centre where it was, but that in case of emergency there would be a lot of people and vehicles coming and going and tight control would be needed.
In reply to being asked if the new terror target label was a response to not being given money for new headquarters, Commissioner Dunn said the ESA now has very good communication facilities that are the envy of every other state and that he would rather run the ESA out of a tent than not have good communications.
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