By VANESSA CHIRCOP
A DECISION by Hobsons Bay City Council to knock back an application to convert the historic Britannia pub into a display suite has been slammed by developers.
Nelson Place Village director Ashley Williams told Star they were very disappointed with the outcome.
“It’s the second application that the council has rejected,” he said.
“It’s starting to give us concern that the council’s not going to be able to deal with the planning applications that we make in an orderly fashion, for a project of this nature.”
In March this year the council refused an application by Nelson Place Village to demolish buildings at the Port Phillip Woollen Mill site.
The Britannia pub, which is located on Kanowna St Williamstown, is nearby.
Williamstown Ward Councillor Angela Altair said the council’s experts rejected the application because they believed many aspects of the application were inappropriate for the historic site.
“The application was not respectful to the heritage features of the building,” Cr Altair said.
Mr Williams said they would appeal this latest knock back at VCAT.
“Our concern is the council can’t separate sensible planning processes from the significant amount of local community anger,” he said.
“That’s meant that the council has been unwilling or unable to make difficult decisions and that’s led to a fairly long-winded set of processes to get us where we have got to.
“Obviously what we want to try and do is keep the project moving forward with the best amount of consultation we can get.
“But if council fails to provide a sensible role as a planning authority then it makes it harder for the community to have a sensible voice in the process.”
Nelson Place Village has since made another application to the council – this time to demolish the historic Oriental Hotel on Nelson Place.
Save Williamstown’s Godfrey Moase supported the council’s decision to turn down the developer’s application.
“There’s no agreed overall development plan for the site, there’s a lot of noise issues we need to work through, in terms of demolition issues and the industrial aspect on one side and the residential aspect on the other side.”
Mr Moase said Save Williamstown will be lodging objections with the council to oppose the demolition of the Oriental Hotel.
“We’ve got a slow moving tragedy down on that side – there’s so many great little old buildings, whether it’s the Oriental, Britannia or the old nugget factory – we can really turn this into something that is a resource for our community and something for all of Melbourne to be proud of.”
