Morpeth residents slammed a decision by Maitland City Council to not hold consultations for a state heritage listing register on properties, but council say it's for the better.
The NSW Office of Environment and Heritage wrote to the council to seek support for the listing on all properties for the historic town.
The office asked for council's "in-principal" support of the register on all properties stating it would allow council more time to consider the nomination and determine if any operational issues would arise.
Councillor Philip Penfold said voting against the listing was the best outcome because realistically not all of the homes in Morpeth are heritage, or in fact old, some are just one year old."This isn't a listing that would just affect the homeowners of Morpeth, this is a listing that would last forever, for generations ahead of time,"
"These properties in many cases are between 1 year old and 40 years old - these properties are the ones that shouldn't have this listing," said Councillor Penfold.
Morpeth is listed as a Heritage Conservation Area already with a few properties of historical significance on the State Heritage Register.
Council also say having all of the properties put on a register would impact what homeowners could do to them, making a simple alteration or a small renovation more difficult to achieve jumping through heritage hoops.
"What would concern me was that to go for a year or more to have an extensive consultation period will decimate the housing market in Morpeth - it will put a cloud of uncertainty over property transactions. I've already had people call me late last week concerned that they've got properties listed and they're unsure what might happen if the Labor party were to succeed in their mission to list state heritage register on every single Morpeth property," said Councillor Penfold.
"We need to be careful not to just listen to a noisy minority. We need to listen to the entirety of a community and this isn't just affecting the people who currently live in Morpeth, this affects Morpeth into generations."
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