DBS Childcare Services wins peppercorn three year lease for Glenden Childcare Centre

Isaac Regional Council recently appointed DBS Child Care Services to manage Glenden Childcare Centre under a ‘peppercorn’ three-year lease arrangement. 

A peppercorn lease is an arrangement which sees a property leased for nominal rent, sometimes as low as $1 a month. 

The childcare centre forms part of a broader push within the region for better future planning for regional communities, spearheaded by Isaac Regional Council at State Government headquarters recently.

Isaac Mayor Anne Baker met with the Queensland Minister for State Development, Manufacturing, Infrastructure and Planning Cameron Dick after the opening of the region’s new $1.76 billion Byerwen mine.

In order to ensure the region meets the incoming demand for workers at the mine, there must be sufficient services within the region, Mayor Baker said, noting that the Council’s “stamp of approval” for the childcare centre is “the confidence booster Glenden needed”.

She said the approval was “the step in the right direction to enable Glenden to once again become the resilient liveable community it once was”, describing the “absolute dichotomy” which sees Glenden located within a short commuting distance from substantial long-life new mining projects, approved projects and established mines, but without the services needed to support those working there. 

Councillors and senior officers met with community stakeholders at Glenden Recreation Centre last week to update them about the Isaac region’s mission for urgent assistance to the small mining community’s social imbalance.

“The reality is the bakery has closed, the Golf and Bowls Club have closed, the newsagency will close in December.These dynamics have created a high degree of uncertainty and Glenden is a township which is poised ready to continue to be a community of liveability, sustainability and economic prosperity in its part of the Isaac region,” Mayor Baker said. 

Local Councillor Jane Pickels said the decision is “Council’s way to show the community that social balance is high on the priority list and that resource-rich Isaac towns like Glenden are not forgotten.”

“We are a region that feeds, builds and powers and this decision by Council today paves the way to our commitment to providing people ways to continue to either live, work and play in Isaac,” Ms Pickels said.

The Glenden Community Group have a memorandum of understanding with a qualified provider with restrictions to no more than six children in care, according to State legislation.

For more information about Glenden, please see here.