Preserving Our Heritage since 1968

The Hunters Hill Trust

The Hunters Hill Trust

Preserving Our Heritage since 1968

proposal to demolish 2 Vernon Street Hunters Hill

2 vernon street from reserve (3)

Council has received a Development Application to demolish 2 Vernon Street, Hunters Hill in order to build a new house and pool.

The property is within Heritage Conservation Area C1, adjoining Mornington Reserve (a heritage item) and not far from other heritage items at 42 Woolwich Road, and 6 Vernon Street.

2 vernon street

You have until January 20th to send your comments on DA 2015/1205 to Hunters Hill Council:

PO Box 21, Hunters Hill, NSW 2110

Email: council@huntershill.nsw.gov.au

 

2016-09-15T11:58:43+10:00December 24, 2015|

Map of proposed new Council boundaries

Inner Sydney Map

Inner Sydney Map

NSW Government has released a map showing Hunters Hill Council being merged with Ryde and Lane Cove Councils to form a huge new municipality with 160,000 residents.

‘Delegates’ will prepare a report outlining:

  • financial considerations
  • communities of interest
  • elected representation
  • employment of staff
  • service and facilities
  • the attitude of residents and ratepayers.

Find out more:  https://www.councilboundaryreview.nsw.gov.au/

2015-12-18T22:33:49+11:00December 18, 2015|

Medical Council of NSW recognises Gladesville Hospital

Gladesville Hospital, image Douglass Baglin

image Douglass Baglin

Folly built 1870Gladesville Hospital site 2012The Medical Council of NSW recognises the significance of the Gladesville Hospital site that they now occupy.  The Council’s 2015 e-newsletter to the 32,000 medical practitioners registered in NSW includes an article on the history of Gladesville Hospital.

We are reminded of the need to protect the heritage values of this precious site.  For more images and information visit our page on Gladesville Hospital.

2015-12-13T11:39:41+11:00December 13, 2015|

ordinary visitors & environmental concerns overlooked in Boronia Park

club_house_62877Despite protests from Hunters Hill Trust, Ryde & Hunters Hill Flora & Fauna Flora Preservation Society and many community members, Council has unanimously adopted the latest version of the Plan of Management for Boronia Park.  The new plan allows for:

  • car parking inside the park in Princes Street
  • sporting clubs to open and close the gate to Princes St
  • construction of a sporting clubhouse within the park, described as a “community facility”
  • lighting on Oval 3.
Source; howwedrive.com

Source:   howwedrive.com

The changes favour selected sporting groups at the expense of:

  • the ordinary users of the park
  • other sporting groups that are currently excluded from Boronia park
  • the environmental requirements of this bushland.
2016-01-21T21:39:35+11:00December 8, 2015|

Seasons greetings

 

HHT President Tony Coote, Christmas party at Waiwera

HHT President Tony Coote, Christmas party at Waiwera

christmas bellsGreat conversations

great setting

great hosts

great group of members

great food

great speeches

great teamwork

…. what more could we ask for?

 

(apart from great local planning maybe)

2015-12-10T14:57:17+11:00December 7, 2015|

Greater Sydney Commission

Cabinet has approved the appointment of

  • Lucy Turnbull as Chief Commissioner
  • Heather Nesbitt as Social Commissioner
  • Rod Simpson as Environment Commissioner
  • Geoff Roberts as Economic Commissioner.

6 District Commissioners nominated by Councils will be appointed for each of Sydney’s six planning districts.  Find out more online.

Hunters Hill is part of the North Subregion:  Priorities for North Subregion

2017-09-03T11:45:26+10:00December 6, 2015|

Planning disaster unfolding

Illustration by Katie Scott

Illustration by Katie Scott

In a letter to the Sydney Morning Herald on December 2, Jennifer Crone of Bondi described the nightmare of six days a week building happening opposite her apartment.  She is faced with the prospect of 60 trucks a day emitting diesel exhaust fumes and intense noise into her apartment from breakfast to dusk for the anticipated 2 year build.

She noted the extreme stress this will cause particularly to people with very young children, shift workers and the elderly and canvassed the possibility of developers paying for the temporary resettlement of those affected.

I wrote in response that I understood her pain because my own street, Bonnefin Road, has been a building site for the last six years.   But at least it is relatively temporary.

That’s not the case for the people living in all those new apartments that continue to sprout up and down both sides of Sydney’s busiest roads.  All day every day they have to suffer extreme levels of traffic noise and air pollution from the ever increasing numbers of vehicles roaring up and down outside their windows.

Reports commissioned by The NSW Department of Planning, which is responsible for this situation, show that exposure to these levels of pollution and noise is bad for your physical and mental health, impacts on your children’s learning ability and takes years off your life expectancy.

In aiding and abetting the continuation of this planning disaster they are acting like that infamous asbestos denier James Hardie.

2017-09-03T11:45:39+10:00December 2, 2015|

Candidates’ positions on forced Council amalgamations

 

council amal

click to enlarge

Voters in the Federal seat of North Sydney head off to the polling booths on December 5th.

All the candidates say that they are opposed to forced Council amalgamations – E X C E P T for the candidates from the Liberal Party and Australian Cyclists.

2015-12-10T14:55:47+11:00December 1, 2015|

Why does the heritage listing of 10 Cowell Street exclude the land around it?

Cowell Street cottage

Cowell Street cottage

10 years after the Paul Davies report recommended heritage listing of 10 Cowell Street, the house has been listed but we are astounded to see that the land around it has been excluded.

The Trust and other community members have urged Council to list 10 Cowell Street, not just as a heritage item, but with its curtilage, as a way of mitigating the impact of the development of the Gladesville Shopping Village site.

The most recent scheme for the GSV site includes 4 massive towers.  Tower B would be 64m above Flagstaff Street (see below).

GSV heights

Heights of proposed GSV in red. Heights allowed by LEP in green

 

 

The business of the listing of 10 Cowell Street raises a number of doubts.

Council appears to have prevaricated on the listing and has failed to articulate its reasons for doing so.

The exclusion of the curtilage wasn’t passed as a resolution by Councillors, rather this wording was added later.

It appears that the main driver of Council’s dealings with the developers has been to maximise the sale price of Council owned public land, rather than to preserve Hunters Hill’s heritage and ensure the best possible development of the shopping area for the community.

The financial imperative to maximise the sale price of the property has never, as far as we can see, been publicly argued by Council.  Instead, Council appears to have been at pains to gloss over the issue and to keep its dealings with the developers secret (presumably with the excuse that such dealings are commercial in confidence).

The wording of the Schedule 5 listing now appears to leave the cottage at 10 Cowell St open to being removed and erected somewhere else as some sort of salve to those who wish to retain it.   We have always argued for the retention of the cottage in situ surrounded by its curtilage.

 

 

 

 

2017-09-03T11:45:59+10:00November 25, 2015|

Seeking new options for the Priory

The Priory, 1857 (image Sardaka)

The Priory, 1857 (image Sardaka)

The Expression of Interest (EOI) process between Hunter’s Hill Council and Tranter Vass Pty Ltd for the re-use of The Priory has expired with no result.

Council has been meeting with ‘new’ potential lessees over recent weeks and  is seeking EOIs from interested organisations or individuals to adaptively reuse the Priory.

Potential uses could include commercial operations, such as office accommodation, cultural/arts/exhibition organisations, education based organisations, conference venue and restaurant.

The Priory is a State Heritage Listed item and is subject to a number of adaptive reuse constraints and will need to be vetted through Crown Lands, The NSW Office of Environment & Heritage and Hunter’s Hill Council.

Issues include:

  • retention of the setting of The Priory
  • retention of views to and from Riverglade Reserve and Tarban Creek
  • conservation of the significant fabric and spaces of The Priory and its outbuildings
  • interpretation of the phases of development and historical use of the site.

(more…)

2015-11-24T08:58:04+11:00November 23, 2015|
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