Perth Voice Interactive

NEGLECTING any heritage building to a point beyond repair should be a crime and landowners should be penalised for it, a community leader says.

Mount Lawley Society patron Barrie Baker says it’s not enough for the Barnett government to protect heritage-listed buildings against “demolition by neglect” — a process where owners purposefully allow character properties to degrade, making it easier to get a demolition through the local council.

Mr Baker says all heritage buildings, even those recognised only at a local government level, have historic value and councils should have the power to penalise neglectful owners.

His comments come as Stirling council rubber-stamps the bulldozing of a 1910s weatherboard house on Seventh Avenue, Inglewood, despite in-house heritage listing.

The council had sought advice from a structural engineer as well as its own heritage architects and consultants before conceding the site was too run down to save: “The subject dwelling has deteriorated to such an extent that it makes a negative contribution to the heritage protection area,” its report states.

“The dwelling is unfit for habitation as a result of a complete lack of maintenance over a considerable length of time … [and] has been determined to be irredeemable.”

The council insists it’s not case of demolition by neglect, but Mr Baker begs to differ.

The Mount Lawley man, who’s lived in the area for more than half-a-century, says the Inglewood house, “hasn’t had a lick of paint in decades”.

“It’s our civic duty to keep a dwelling up to scratch,” Mr Baker says. “It’s part of the deal of living in a community.”

His sentiments were shared on the society’s Facebook page: “These properties are prime opportunities for developers to acquire, neglect and then demolish.

“But these rare properties do have a value in our community, for they point back to the very earliest days of our city in those suburbs. They clearly belong to the heritage of our city.”

According to the group, the house is one of 16 weatherboard houses built early in the development of local suburbs.

At least six have been demolished already, the group says, but some, such as 163 Ninth Avenue, have been well preserved.

The demolition applicant could not be contacted. Demolition will not go ahead until the council sees replacement designs.

WA heritage minister Albert Jacob is planning on introducing a “repair order provision” in a new Heritage Act.

Changes aim to prevent demolition by neglect of state heritage-listed properties, and will allow the minister to compel landowners to make “sufficient repairs” so buildings are safe, weather-tight and don’t lose their structural integrity.

by EMMIE DOWLING