Hundreds of children in the inner west are stranded without child care after the NSW Government failed to approve an emergency after care provider in time for the start of the school year.
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In November, Leichhardt Council announced that it would open up its town hall for after school care to help alleviate the chronic lack of facilities in the region.
Leichhardt has almost 4500 primary school students and an after-school care capacity for 1200.
It is just one of many Sydney areas battling with a child care shortage as hundreds of thousands of NSW primary children return to school.
There are fewer than 500 after-school care places for more than 5000 students in Willoughby, while the Sydney CBD is also attempting to address an after school care shortage.
"They need to address it," said Erskineville mother Abi Ulgiagi. The freelancer works on a day-to-day basis and is desperate for care for her five-year-old Nini May.
"I have a disabled mother, I've got to go to work tomorrow, and I have no child care. We're at top capacity," she said.
Under Leichhardt Council's proposal, private provider Whoosh care would transform the town hall into an after school care centre.
"We want to make these facilities available to lessen the impact their negligence is having on local families, but the NSW Government has to do its bit," said Leichhardt Mayor Darcy Byrne.
He said that NSW Department of Education had failed to approve the child care centre despite being warned about the shortage of space for years.
"The Baird Government's 1950s attitude, which presumes women can stay home to care for children, simply doesn't work in modern inner city Sydney where more often than not both parents have to work to pay their mortgage or rent."
A spokesman for the NSW Department of Education said the government had received the application and was working closely with the applicants so approval can be given as soon as possible.
While Leichhardt Council pushes the state government to approve its plans, others are agitating for their own councils to replicate Leichhardt's policy and open up underused buildings for child care services.
Labor Councillor Linda Scott proposed that the CIty of Sydney Council adopt Leichhardt Council's policy and lease underused public spaces to after school child care operators 18 months ago.
"As a mother of two young boys, I share the frustration of local parents who are faced with the impossible task of finding care for their children because the City has dragged the chain on fixing the crisis," said Cr Scott.
"Local parents have been well and truly let down by Lord Mayor Clover Moore's lack of action to address the before and after school care crisis," she said.
In November, the City of Sydney Council announced that it would consider building a mixed use residential and childcare centre on land rejected by the Department of Education as too contaminated for a school site in an effort to address the shortage.
If approved, the centre would be built on a site formerly earmarked for the Ultimo Public School after negotiations between the NSW Department of Education and the City of Sydney council ended in a dispute over remediation plans.
A spokeswoman said that the City of Sydney Council has been working on an "implementation plan", that will include opening up community spaces to after care providers.
"City staff regularly meet with officers from the Department of Education to advocate for before and after school care within school grounds," she said.
Correction: A previous version of this story contained statistics from a 2013 study of child care places in the Sydney CBD. Those statistics referred to child care, not after school places.
