Presented by Robert Clark MP		www.robertclark.net

Thwaites overrules council on Bayside heritage controls

The Minister for Planning, Mr John Thwaites, has extended Interim Demolition Controls in the Bayside Planning Scheme to 31 March 2000, contrary to the wishes of Bayside Council.

The City of Bayside prepared and exhibited a Planning Scheme Amendment in 1998 which proposed heritage protection for about 330 properties. At the time, the Council requested Interim Demolition Controls from the then Minister for Planning while the Council proceeded through the normal public exhibition process.

The interim controls do not prohibit demolition but require that a property owner first obtain a planning permit.

The City of Bayside's Interim Demolition Controls were scheduled to expire on 30 November 1999.

Mr Thwaites said the interim controls were introduced with the purpose of regulating the demolition of buildings of architectural or historic importance while the Council completed the Planning Scheme Amendment process.

"As the Planning Scheme Amendment has not been resolved, I have acted to extend the interim control," Mr Thwaites said.

Mr Thwaites said the National Trust and the Victorian Heritage Council have also requested that the interim demolition controls be extended.

According to The Age newspaper, Bayside Council had voted that controls over demolition should not be extended when they expired on 30 November, and the Mayor of Bayside, Cr Michael Harwood, said that the Minister had ignored the specific wishes of council in the matter.

"The Minister's actions appear to be entirely contrary to the Brack Government platform of local autonomy and self determination," Cr Harwood is reported to have said.

"It in effect is an about-face in the first few weeks of the new Government."

See Media Release, Minister for Planning, November 26, 1999; The Age 27 Nov 1999.