Victoria Market revamp: Sigrid Thornton attacks $250m plans

ACTOR Sigrid Thornton has launched a savage attack on plans for the $250 million Queen Victoria Market, sparking the fury of Lord Mayor Robert Doyle.

Australian actor Sigrid Thornton. Picture: Julie Kiriacoudis

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ACTOR Sigrid Thornton has launched a savage attack on plans for the $250 million Queen Victoria Market, sparking the fury of Lord Mayor Robert Doyle who called her claims wild and reckless.

Thornton, a regular market shopper, accused the Melbourne city council of a potential “land grab” involving developer deals, and she claimed the fresh food market was in “extreme danger”.

“Under the guise of ‘renewal’ is it about to be stolen with diversity diminished, stallholders sidelined and prices set to skyrocket?” she said in a statement promoting a Save Vic Market rally to be held on Friday.

“How did improved facilities, extra parking and open space for the market become a skyscraper property deal?”

Artist’s image of proposed Munro site redevelopment next to Queen Victoria Market. Picture: Supplied

To help pay for the refurbishment, the city council is doing deals with developers for mixed-use towers to be built on council-owned land.

Mr Doyle said Thornton’s comments on the Munro site — a proposed 58-storey tower on the corner of Queen and Therry streets — were “wild, irrational and reckless”, and she was desperately trying to invoke the “bogeyman of evil developers”.

“It’s hardly a land grab ... it’s a purchase in the commercial market, and the reason we did that was to inoculate the market against bad development so we’re not going to have a supermarket there, and we’re not going to have franchises there,” he said.

However, the redevelopment faces hurdles due to doubts by state Planning Minister Minister Richard Wynne, who said last month the project “does not have a lot of friends”, and he is yet to approve a crucial planning amend­ment amid concerns the Munro site tower is too tall.

Read more: Seven of Victoria’s best farmers’ markets

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