Heritage Committee comments on ‘disjointed’ Preston Market planning approach
Darebin Council is under fire after it refused to ask for protection for a northern suburbs icon, despite advice to do so from the state’s cultural heritage expert. And critics have come out firing.
North
Don't miss out on the headlines from North. Followed categories will be added to My News.
Darebin Council is under fire for its “disjointed” handling of the protection of Preston Market after a heritage committee said it should consider reversing its decision and back a protective overlay for the site.
Meanwhile, the choice to exclude a report recommending it be placed on a heritage overlay has also been questioned.
On September 18 the Heritage Council committee released its findings from a community-led bid to include the Preston Market on the Victorian Heritage Register.
While the committee ruled the market didn’t have state-level significance, it did determine a heritage overlay was the most appropriate mechanism to preserve the market’s cultural heritage.
“The Committee notes that in its submissions Darebin expressed a view that there are likely to be better planning controls than a Heritage Overlay (in isolation) for protecting the cultural heritage values of the place. However, the committee is of the view that this position ought to be revisited,” the decision read.
Councillors voted against a motion to urge the Planning Minister to include Preston Market in a heritage overlay on September 23.
DID THE COUNCIL FAIL THE MARKET? TELL US BELOW
Darebin Appropriate Development Association president Maria Poletti said the council had rejected multiple calls from the community to apply a heritage overlay and other planning controls.
“They have been bloody-minded in their refusal to even hear arguments about the heritage value of the market buildings or apply a heritage overlay,” she said.
Live your best Melbourne life with a Leader Community News subscription
“They are more intent on being right and saving face than doing the right thing to save Preston Market with its tangible and intangible assets in place.”
The committee called the council’s heritage approach “disjointed” and noted its submission did not include a heritage study commissioned by consultants Context in December 2017, nor the two reviews of that study.
Recommendations from the Context study included that “Preston Market has local heritage significance to the City of Darebin” and “the City of Darebin seek to protect Preston Market through the application of the Heritage Overlay in the Darebin Planning Scheme”.
Darebin Councillor Gaetano Greco, who proposed the motion on September 23, said they had received clear recommendations the overlay was the most appropriate mechanism to protect the market.
“Council has failed not only to support the community’s calls for a heritage overlay but (the) council now needs to listen to the experts that have looked at all the evidence and are strongly recommending a heritage overlay,” he said.
Planning Minister Richard Wynne asked the Victorian Planning Authority to review planning controls for the site in August 2017.
MORE NEWS: HARDWARE FRAUDSTER AVOIDS JAIL
CORRUPT COUNCIL WORKER HELPS CONTRACTOR TO $16M
CLIMATE ACTIVISTS “DROWN” IN HIGH ST PROTEST
Darebin Mayor Susan Rennie said “the social and cultural heritage” of the market must be protected and asked the authority to examine all planning controls, not just a heritage overlay.
“An overlay may only protect specific physical elements of the building’s fabric, like the spaceframe and concrete load bearing tilt up panel walls,” she said.
“An overlay wouldn’t protect some of the most critical elements of the market like its social and cultural heritage and character.”
Cr Rennie said the disjointed approach was due to the crossover with the authority, and the Context study was not included because it only looked at local significance, not state.
The authority is expected to release a draft framework plan in October.