Wreckers move in on Greyhound Hotel after Planning Minister fails to deliver on heritage protection

YET another historic landmark hotel has been destroyed, with the Greyhound Hotel in St Kilda being torn down just days after a bid to save it failed.

The demolition team has commenced wrecking at the Greyhound Hotel.

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WORK has started to tear down the Greyhound Hotel a week after the State Government ruled against saving the beloved landmark.

Community outcry and a heritage report calling for it to be preserved failed to persuade Planning Minister Richard Wynne to throw the 163-year-old building a lifeline.

A private building surveyor issued a demolition permit for the former gay bar on Brighton Rd in June last year and hoarding was installed at the site earlier this month.

The Leader broke the news on the likely destruction of the Greyhound last November after a planning application for an eight-storey apartment building was lodged.

Port Phillip Council rejected the proposal earlier this year after it received 45 objections and a petition of more than 2500 signatures against the development.

The developer plans to fight the council’s decision at a three-day VCAT hearing starting June 26.

Planning Minister Richard Wynne said the council had been running a sham campaign to save the Greyhound. Picture: Chris Eastman

Mr Wynne slammed the council for running a “sham media campaign” trying to save the building while “working in the back room” to approve demolition works.

But Mayor Bernadene Voss rejected his claim, saying the council had fought for six months to get heritage controls to prevent the Greyhound’s demise.

Cr Voss said the council had no power to refuse the demolition permit and called on the minister to tighten planning controls and give councils more guidance around how to protect sites of social significance.

“If this policy vacuum continues, other communities around Victoria may feel the same sense of loss the Port Phillip Community is experiencing,” she said.

“No one wants poor planning outcomes and a lack of transparent decision-making.

“Let’s not have the Greyhound ‘die’ in vain.”

Southern Metropolitan Greens MP Sue Pennicuik said Mr Wynne “deserved to go down as the Minister for the Wrecking Ball” for refusing to protect the Greyhound.

His decision not to grant heritage controls came just weeks after the demolition of the landmark London Hotel in Port Melbourne under similar circumstances.

“In these instances only the Planning Minister has the power to stop demolitions and apply protections to significant sites,” she said.

“In both cases (he) has allowed demolition, siding with property developers against the local community.”