Dear Katrina
Thank you for your email.
Please find attached below brief answers to your questions.
I would also like to mention that I am a life member and former member of Board of Directors of the National Trust and past Secretary of the Defend Our Heritage group that campaigned to protect the Royal Exhibition Buildings and have it included on the World Heritage List.
I am very much supportive of the need to preserve and protect our built and natural environment.
Regards
Anthony van der Craats
Independent Candidate , City of Melbourne Council Election 2012
Life member of the National Trust of Australia
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Melbourne Heritage Action
P.O.
Box 24198, Melbourne VIC 3001, Australia
www.melbourneheritage.org.au
enquiries@melbourneheritage.org.au
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Melbourne Heritage Action
Questions for City of Melbourne election 2012
candidates
September 2012
QUESTION 1
Do you acknowledge that the built heritage of
Melbourne’s CBD is a vital element of Melbourne’s character, essence,
liveability and desirability? Yes
QUESTION 2
Within the City of Melbourne, and
particularly in the CBD, our built heritage is being steadily eroded. Buildings
that were significant to our city’s character and history have been lost
(Lonsdale House and 40% of the Windsor Hotel) or facaded (Myer and current
proposals for the Celtic Club and Royal Saxon Hotel). Should the City of Melbourne continue to allow full demolition or
facading of heritage buildings? No
QUESTION 3
The City of Melbourne has recently approved a
Heritage Strategy for public comment. It outlines some of the many gaps in
heritage protection in the City of Melbourne. Do you support the protection of a wider range of places and the
upgrading of policy controls for heritage structures and precincts as
recommended in the Heritage Strategy? Yes,
and I would even go further. One policy that is being ignored by the City
Council is the excellent policy document on Victorian Verandahs. All too often Council officers ignore or shelve policies on heritage protection.
QUESTION 4
How will you ensure that
this vital heritage strategy is carried out and funded in full and not
abandoned as previous heritage studies have been in the past? I would insist that the City of Council when review of all
planning applications that they take into consideration heritage preservation
and where an application impacts on a site of significance that the application
conta9in a detailed report and assessment of its impact on the heritage value
in accordance with ICOMOS standards and procedures. I would also invite
organistations and heritage experts, academics and architectural historians, outside the City Council, to sit on a heritage review
committee that would have charter and responsibility to oversee heritage
applications and Council policy development. This committee would operate in a similar basis as the National Trust Building Committee
QUESTION 5
Would you support the
establishment of a dedicated heritage unit or steering committee within the
City of Melbourne to ensure heritage is properly managed? Yes,
see above
QUESTION 6
The recent CBD heritage review recommended 99
new individual buildings be heritage listed. However, this can only be seen as
“stop gap” study. Many more buildings and notable precincts remain unprotected.
Would you support more protection of
Melbourne’s increasingly rare, smaller scale heritage buildings and precincts,
including its laneways? Yes
this would be a task that would fall under the proposed Heritage Committee
listed above
QUESTION 7
As it stands a number of extremely significant
heritage interiors such as Block Court on Collins Street and the Centenary Hall
interiors on Exhibition Steet have absolutely no protection and could be
destroyed at any time without the public or the City of Melbourne being
notified. How would you ensure that
heritage interiors are protected in the immediate future before they are lost? The
proposed expert committee would have the charter to consider any application
for inclusion on the City’s heritage list.
QUESTION 8
Melbourne Heritage Action recently compiled a
detailed study of the CBD’s laneways and found that only nine laneways had any
real protection. Many lanes celebrated by the City of Melbourne, such as
Literature Lane and AC/DC lane, have had major developments approved that make
little effort to enhance the lanes they are built on. Melbourne’s lanes
continue to be sold off. How will you
ensure that Melbourne’s laneway network is better protected and managed? The
proposed expert committee would have the charter to consider any application
for inclusion on the city’s heritage list and Council’s management policy
QUESTION 9
Following its inclusion on the list of 99 buildings
to be considered for heritage protection in the CBD the famous mosaic floors of
Rosati’s restaurant in Flinders Lane were demolished because interim
protection—requested by the City of Melbourne over a year ago—had not been
approve by Planning Minister Guy. Likewise, the historic former VD clinic on
Little Lonsdale Street, on same the list, is the subject of a current
demolition application by its owners. In
your view, how important is the long accepted mechanism of interim heritage
protection? High priority
How will you ensure that
the Minister does not continue to ignore requests for interim protection from
the City of Melbourne? Unfortunately the Council cannot override the
directions of the State Minister however it is appropriate that the Council
monitor and highlight any threats to our built and natural heritage as
identified by the Council’s Expert Heritage committee and actively use the
resources of the Council to advocate for their protection and if necessary seek
legal address at VCAT and the Courts
QUESTION 10
The Minister for Planning is the responsible
authority for projects in the CBD over 25 000 m2. This means the City of
Melbourne is bypassed completely. This threshold is now thirty years old, which
means that each year many more projects are over this limit and are ‘called in’.
This gives the planning minister power over many more developments than was
originally intended. Should this limit
be raised, or eliminated altogether?
And should there be a
different system for dealing with these larger projects which directly impact
on the planning of Melbourne’s CBD? The Council remains the planning authority and has the
right to make submissions to the State Government and if need be seek appeal
and review. It must retain the right of oversight and if need be the
right to appeal to a higher authority or seek judicial review.
