Room for one more?

Two new colleges at one existing site will be considered if a suitable location cannot be found, a public meeting has been told.

Education Minister Chris Hipkins delivered the message through former Labour candidate Janette Walker on Sunday, adding he accepted there was ‘‘some urgency’’ to get the communitybacked co-location process moving.

Walker said Hipkins was considering several options, but would look at co-locating the new schools at either the existing Marlborough Boys’ College or Marlborough Girls’ College sites.

‘‘Trying to find land in Blenheim for affordable housing is a bit of a problem, let alone finding a school site ... the ministry and [Hipkins] are working very hard to find a resolution,’’ Walker said.

Marlborough Boys’ College principal Wayne Hegarty said after the meeting the current college sites were both too small for co-location, especially for the low-density building designs preferred by the schools.

‘‘That option is not encouraged by us. They’re saying if they can’t go to a new site, they have fallback options that include a multi-storey build on an existing site. There has been the suggestion that Bohally [Intermediate School] could be moved so the colleges can go there ... but the issue that remains is, where do the Bohally students go during the build? There are certainly logistical issues there.’’

The Marlborough Girls’ College site was 8.37 hectares. The Marlborough Boys’ College site was 9ha split over the Stephenson St grounds and the nearby College Park. The Ministry of Education wanted about 14ha for colocation.

Bohally Intermediate School board of trustees co-chairwoman Susie Glover said she could not comment on the idea as the board had not been formally approached.

Kaiko¯ura MP National’s Stuart Smith and National’s education spokeswoman Nikki Kaye called the public meeting on Sunday. About 80 people attended and most supported the move to seek greater transparency around Hipkins’ review of the co-location plan, which he announced last month.

Smith said he asked Hipkins during question time in Parliament if he was still going to commit $60 million to the colleges, as set aside by the National Government when the project was announced in 2015.

The Parliament transcript recorded Hipkins as saying the final cost could be more than $100m, ‘‘if we continue to go ahead with the option of co-location on a new site’’.

Kaye said her goal was to get as much clarity about the review as possible.

Kaye and Smith said they wanted to know the terms of reference of the review and its expected timeline.

Kaye also wanted clarification about whether the public-private partnership (PPP) model, where buildings were managed by a private company, would be scrapped, she said.

Smith said he understood about six sites were ‘‘toyed with’’ in the media, but there were some sites the ministry had considered that were not released to the public that were ‘‘still on the table’’.

‘‘But I’m not here to advocate for a site.

‘‘People want to know what’s happening for their children and their grandchildren. Things take longer, and things cost more than expected. That’s OK, as long as we know what’s happening.’’

He wanted to make sure the review was ‘‘not about politics’’, he said.

‘‘If the ministry can release the terms of reference of the review – who’s doing what, the timeline ... that’s different.’’

A mother in the crowd said the ministry needed to pick a site so people could get behind it.

Ministry sector enablement and support deputy secretary Katrina Casey said releasing information about potential school sites before they were purchased could prejudice negotiations.

‘‘As we are yet to acquire a site, commercial discussions with landowners are held in confidence to protect the interests of all parties. We are happy to provide information about the acquisition process once completed.’’