The Marshall Liberal Government has finally succumbed to a long running community campaign to save buildings and streetscapes with local heritage and character value.
For decades ‘contributory items’ have been listed by local councils to afford them greater protection. For two years the government has refused to transfer those items over into the new Planning and Design Code, sparking widespread community outrage.
The State Planning Commission has now recommended to the Minister for Planning Vickie Chapman that she reverses her party’s long-held position and that 11,902 contributory items should be protected under the new Code.
11,019 items will now be transferred to come under the new Historic Area Overlay, affording them demolition controls and greater protection from destruction.
79 existing contributory items will only be afforded protection under the Character Area Overlay which does not provide demolition controls. 11 items have been struck off entirely.
Quotes attributed to the Shadow Minister for Planning Jayne Stinson
Labor has been passionately fighting for the protection of contributory items for years, alongside thousands of passionate residents.
The former Minister for Planning Tony Piccolo (now the Labor Candidate for Schubert) deserves particular thanks for taking the fight to the government and securing this win.
It was always a dumb idea to drop the protections for these valuable buildings. It’s about time the government finally listened to Labor and the community to backflip on their silly and stubborn position.
Labor will examine the fine print of the recommendation, but at this stage it appears local people can claim victory over a non-sensical and belligerent Liberal policy.