A push to heritage list three historic local buildings has been put on the back burner, after a rescission motion from Parramatta Council stopped the nomination in its tracks.
The debate over the collective nomination of Hambleden Cottage, Elizabeth Farm and Experiment Farm for National and Commonwealth Heritage List has continued to heat up, with one Councillor accusing the Council of not respecting heritage.
It comes after the July 8 meeting, where Council agreed to give consent as the landowner of Hambledon Cottage for it to be nominated alongside Experiment Farm, Elizabeth Farm and Clay Cliff Creek before the July 19 deadline.
The decision copped heavy criticism from many in the Chamber, who raised concerns over what granting landowner’s consent would mean for the Council (Controversy over heritage, Parra News July 16).
However, a motion to rescind the decision to grant landowner’s consent for Hambledon Cottage was supported at the latest Council meeting – ultimately preventing the nomination for heritage listing from proceeding this year.
Instead, the matter will now be deferred to a Councillor workshop.
Parramatta Deputy Lord Mayor Patricia Prociv criticised the move.
“We don’t respect our heritage, we don’t even look after the heritage that we control, we rely on other people to do it,” she said.
“We’ve lost Willow Grove, we lose all this heritage in the city of Parramatta.
“We want to include this, it is a substantial thing to go for heritage, and we say ‘oh no we’d like a little workshop’ – when are we going to grow up and start taking responsibility for our heritage and work with people who are happy to do what we don’t do and take the lead on this?”
But Councillor Michelle Garrard said it was important to get more information on what granting landowner’s consent would mean for the Council.
“This Council is making a responsible decision by saying we want to be the consent landowner, we want to actually progress this to have it go through the National Heritage list – we should be doing that as a responsible Chamber,” she said.
“This is our responsibility, not passing it on to somebody else, which is why this Chamber did not support it, this is why there was a rescission put in.
“This Chamber does take the heritage very seriously.”
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