Historial Morpeth Better Off This Way

BY JESSICA ROUSE

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."

EARLIER:

No Say For Morpeth Residents on Heritage

No Say For Morpeth Residents on Heritage

BY JESSICA ROUSE

A request for support of a consultation process with the Morpeth community to get a heritage nomination listing underway has been knocked back by Maitland City Council.

At council's meeting on Tuesday night eight of the twelve councilors voted against the consultation requested by the NSW Office of Environment and Heritage.

The NSW Office of Environment and Heritage suggested in a letter to the council that they provide "in principal" support for the nomination to allow the Heritage Division to begin community consultation in Morpeth and surrounds to determine what support there is for the listing.

The consultation would happen before any official heritage listing.

Morpeth Heritage Conservation Group President Simon Brooker is slamming the council's decision and said it's not the first time they've tried to get the town heritage listing -  back in 2007 Morpeth received a nomination but then it seemed council tossed it in the bottom drawer.

"I don't know whether there's sour grapes within the components of Maitland City Council that certain people didn't get elected into the positions that they wanted or whether there's another agenda there we just don't know. But just voting no to allow a community to have a say is reprehensible as far as a council is concerned," said Simon.

Simon also said the heritage nomination won't stop any development within the town, but what it will do is make sure any development is consistent with the heritage of the town and its surrounding countryside.

He said the decision council made against the town having a say doesn't bode well for the their future.

"It's staggering and what is even more staggering is that our elected council, the people who we vote in and whose rates we pay, decided to vote no for allowing their community to have a say on their future. It's absolutely quite extraordinary," said Simon.

More development headache's for Morpeth

BY JARROD MELMETH AND JESSICA ROUSE

A development application has been lodged with Maitland City Council for a three-storey apartment block at Morpeth, but residents say it will lead to major traffic and parking issues in the area.
The proposed site is the former Griffins Motors site in Swan Street, but there's a major issue - it's part of the Morpeth heritage conservation area.

GHT Holdings are looking to transform the site, and the Heritage Impact Statement they lodged says the project will have minimal impact on the heritage significance of the surrounding conservation area and nearby heritage items.

The developer also says the design is supposed to resemble stables and reflect the town's transport history.

However, some Morpeth residents totally disagree.

The unit block would be called Morpeth Central Residences bordering William and Market Streets with a contemporary design including rendered walls, vertically oriented windows, face brickwork, corrugated metal roofs, a verandah and also solar panels and a row of single garages at the rear of the site to cater for car parking needs.

Morpeth Central Residences Image maitlandmercury.com.au from Statement of Heritage Impact report
which was written by John Carr Heritage Design for developer GHT Holdings

President of the Morpeth Heritage Conservation Group Simon Brooker says he hopes commonsense will prevail and the application won't progress.

"It's two storey's, it's inconsistent with the street line, it sticks out like a sore thumb and it's just totally and utterly inappropriate to the township."

"We're looking at an application for 28 2-bedroom apartments plus parking for 26 cars - now that in itself causes a significant issue because if you look at the last census in 2011 the average household has 2 cars, we're looking at an additional 30-plus vehicles," said Simon Brooker.

Maitland Council are seeking feedback on the plans until April 12.