Page 916 - Week 03 - Wednesday, 22 March 2017
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for quite a long period of time, in fact, since this Labor government was first elected.
Heritage listing is an important part of managing change and keeping heritage places authentic, alive and useful for the ACT community. A listing gives public recognition to heritage places. Listing as a heritage place or precinct is a mark of community distinction; it recognises the special qualities of a place and can give owners improved access to heritage grants and architectural advice from ACT Heritage and the Heritage Advisory Service on how to make sympathetic changes if applicable.
It is important for us all to retain the old as we move into the new. It enables us to continue to enjoy our history. You could think of the Kingston powerhouse, which is where the Canberra Glassworks are now, or the transport depot, now the Old Bus Depot Markets, and how much we enjoy using those spaces. There are many other examples around the ACT. It is therefore imperative that applications for heritage listings be determined in a timely and efficient manner.
As I have already mentioned, there were 131 heritage nominations waiting for assessment as at the end of February this year. As at the end of the 2015-16 financial year, there were 136 nominations, so there has been a decrease of only five. Only five items in the backlog have been addressed. That is not necessarily counting new applications but, in the past eight months, there has been a decrease in the backlog of only five. In the prior 12 months, there was a decrease of only six. This backlog is stopping people from having certainty about their properties. Canberrans in many cases like to have some certainty so they can plan for the future.
To give one example, I have met with some people from Oaks Estate who have spent a good part of the past two decades waiting for a response from the Heritage Council about heritage listing. I personally do not have a view on the heritage value of any of those nominations; it is not my place to make those assessments. What I am talking about here is the process, and the process as it stands does not appear to be meeting the needs of Canberrans. The long waiting list is preventing people from Oaks Estate from being able to properly plan for the development of their property and their community.
It is happening to other people, not just people from Oaks Estate. In the past 29 years, the ACT government has conducted three assessments on the heritage value of nominations in Oaks Estate. The latest one was in 2013 by Philip Leeson Architects on behalf of the ACT environment and sustainable development directorate.
Philip Leeson Architects were the heritage advisory service contracted to the heritage unit and the Heritage Council. Their investigation found that Oaks Estate meets the thresholds for heritage significance as set out in sections 10(b), (c), (e), (f) and (h) of the ACT Heritage Act 2004. What we have here is the government’s own contracted experts who have found that Oaks Estate meets the criteria for heritage protection on multiple fronts. Yet the government or the Heritage Council still have not made a decision.
In a letter to the Oaks Estate Progress Association on 1 March 2016, the chair of the ACT Heritage Council wrote that the precinct nomination had been considered a
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