Council to revise Queen Victoria Market plan

MELBOURNE City Council has conceded it must do a better job in selling the $250 million Queen Victoria Market revamp, as the council revealed it would not appeal against Heritage Victoria’s shock decision to refuse their plans.

MELBOURNE City Council has conceded it must do better to sell the $250 million redevelopment of Queen Victoria Market to the public.

Acting Lord Mayor Arron Wood made the admission as the council revealed it will not appeal against Heritage Victoria’s shock decision to knock back planned works on historic sheds.

The council is now likely to negotiate a revised plan with the heritage authority to decide how to proceed with the refurbishment of the sheds.

According to a report to go before a council meeting tomorrow night, a legal challenge against the heritage ruling would be lengthy, expensive and create more uncertainty for traders.

HERITAGE CONCERNS OVER REDEVELOPMENT

REDEVELOPMENT REJECTED BY HERITAGE VICTORIA

Queen Victoria Market. Picture: Ian Currie

PLAN APPROVED BY STATE GOVERNMENT

CAMPAIGNERS PROTEST TO SAVE QUEEN VIC MARKET

Cr Wood said he remained very disappointed that the council’s planning application

to dismantle and restore part of the sheds and build three levels of basement was rejected in March by Heritage Victoria.

“There were some real issues with Heritage Victoria’s decision. You even look at some of the reasoning and it conflicts,” he said at a briefing this morning.

Acting Lord Mayor Arron Wood has admitted the city council needs to do better to sell the Queen Victoria Market redevelopment to the public.

However, Cr Wood said the best option was to negotiate an outcome with the authority, and convince the public of the need for the overall redevelopment of the city icon.

“We haven’t won the narrative as much as we could have. Various groups have been very vocal and it’s been very easy to say ‘hands off our market,’” he said.

“So we’ve got to get better at telling the reason as to why this needs to occur.”

Cr Wood said the council had got it wrong by not explaining properly how the redevelopment fitted into a strategy of boosting CBD north.

“This is a huge part of the city, and it is about protecting the heritage of the market and ensuring it’s got long term sustainability ... but it’s as much about the delivery of new open space and creating or knitting together the CBD with North Melbourne, with West Melbourne,” he said.

“We’ve got Victoria St traders, Errol St traders that are absolutely crying out for this renewal because they think it will help their businesses.”

Cr Wood said that despite Heritage Victoria’s decision, he believed that the building of basement facilities for traders was still vital for the market’s business case.

The issue of where to locate 220 car spaces, which were to be built under the sheds, will need to be resolved.

Cr Wood criticised a proposal raised during the lord mayoral election campaign that potentially thousands of bodies buried under the current market carpark be exhumed and the remains returned to relatives.

“I mean, seriously, I thought the Comedy Festival finished a while ago. To me that’s just unbelievable,” he said.

Under the council plan, the existing carpark will be turned into a green space and new car spaces built elsewhere in the market precinct.

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