|
Society of Heritage Owners NSW Just, transparent heritage laws with positive incentives for owners. |
 |  |
 |  |
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
What is heritage evilness?
It is defined as actions that go beyond biased heritage nomination or heritage listing processes and which go beyond far too common social ills such as heritage corruption and/or one off harassment of heritage property owners. Heritage evilness is when heritage fanatics go feral, to the point where they knowingly, recklessly and willing place their heritage business income, hobby and/or desire for heritage authenticity over and above alleviating human suffering, human safety, human dignity or human life. When they engage in long term, serious harassment or abuse of the vulnerable in order to satisfy their heritage hobby or protect their heritage consultancy income. In some cases they are so ideologically constipated they end up destroying the heritage item they claim to cherish by a refusal to bring the item up to modern building Code and safety requirements.
This page will be bringing you appalling cases of local and international pure heritage evil.
Case 1 Using heritage claims to block the Development Application from St Vincent's Hospital, Sydney to construct a purpose build word class cancer research and treament facility and world class virology institute.
The Sydney Morning Herald [18 August 2009 p3] had a headline stating "Reluctant Opposition to Giant Cancer Centre." The article stated one of Australia's leading hospitals - St Vincent's - which was founded and run by the Sisters of Charity - had lodged a Development Application with Sydney City Council to construct an 11 storey building in Victoria Street Darlinghurst. The building would house its new Cancer Insitute as well as a Virology centre. The location of the research centres next to St Vincent's charitable public patient hospital and its private hospital means a dovetailing of patient care, research and application of that research in one area. This institution has an outstanding, world class reputation in a number of areas including heart transplants, palliative care, AIDS and HIV patient care and so on.
The Daily Telegraph had featured the story a few months previously. Both stories are reproduced at the end of the discussion about this DA.
What does Clover Moore the Mayor Sydney and the Member for Parliament for Bligh, an inneer city seat with many members of the gay community within it who have or may rely in future on St Vincents for their care? Her complaint is the building would be out of scale with the lower level buildings in the street and negatively impact on heritage items such as two storey terraces. Clover Moore is the same Mayor and MP whose Council heritage listed the derelict, gutted by fire and with only three walls left standing Edwin Davey Flour Mill in Pyrmont and refuse to delist the property even though it poses clear dangers to locals, retains no heritage features and the owner has an excellent Development Application. Why" Extremist heritage fetishism that places greater weight on the past than people living now.
How are they able to get away with such heritage abuses? More simply than you may think. The heritage listing criteria which the heritage fanatics are wedded to is drawn from the Burra Charter and contains listing criteria (a)-(g). These are the listing criteria heritage fanatics in NSW train heritage consultants to apply - strictly. They admit no real world considerations. This includes no 'public interest test'to weigh the purported public interest in the heritage listing against other public interests. This omission means they of course are free to assume the one and only 'public interest' is in the heritage listing. That is certainly what they repeatedly claim. Further, other real world factors such as the state of dereliction of an item and or the dangers it poses to publich healthm safety, dignity or life are not allowed a look in as considerations. Nor is other practical matters such as whether there is money available to repair items to being them up to a state that does not pose such dangers to people or a timeline with a schedule of works, which is monitored to ensure it is carried out.
These important public interest considerations were not researched or subject to recommendations by the Expert Panel commissioned by the then NSW Heritage Minister Frank Sartor to review the NSW Heritage Act. They therefore have not found their way into the reforms in the NSW Heritage Amendment Act 2009 passed by the NSW Parliament in June 2009.
This means heritage fanatics in NSW can still get away with these appalling human rights abuses in which a building is deemed far more important and meriting legal protection than cancern stricken patients. Such awful proritising happens again and again in NSW as well as in other jurisidictions because of the fanatical adhernece to the Burra Charter criteria (a)-(g).
Reluctant opposition to giant cancer centre
Paul Bibby Urban Affairs Reporter
August 18, 2009 But The facility - which the Sydney Lord Mayor, Clover Moore, says would ''grossly tower over the surrounding local area'' and ''destroy the scale of ''This is a project that will have major significance … and it is important that we are able to build a centre that can accommodate all the clinical services and research infrastructure required,'' a hospital spokesman said. But others have questioned whether it is right for exceptions to be made because a developer wants to do something of great benefit. The proposal includes a nine-storey virology research centre, which has nothing to do with the cancer research. Planning experts from the City of The NSW Planning Minister, Kristina Keneally, has taken the decision out of the local council's hands. Local residents are in the awkward position of demanding the centre be significantly reduced. ''We're opposing the size and the scale,'' said the secretary of the Darlinghurst Residents' Action Group, Avril Ingram. ''What would you do if it was happening in your street?'' Source: The Sydney Morning Herald THE future of a $100 million cancer research centre has been placed in jeopardy by a group of inner Case 2 Transfer of seriously mentally ill patients and staff from heritage listed John Fletcher Centre in Newcastle made pawns in heritage fanatics hands. They opposed moving patients out of unsafe and unhealthy dormitory accommodation into a new, purpose built facility due to concerns the NSW Health Department would not spend money maintaining their heritage hobby.
Call for patients not to be made pawns in hospital heritage debate
The Hunter Health chief executive says people with a mental illness should not become pawns in debate over the heritage significance of At a Newcastle City Council meeting last night, Professor Katherine McGrath outlined the benefits of relocating mental health services from the site to the Professor McGrath says no plans have been made about the future of the site if relocation occurs, but improving mental health care is her first priority. "There are those who are saying keep the mental health on the James Fletcher site, so we protect the heritage of that site. I think then people of mental illness are becoming a pawn in the game of how you protect heritage and I think that is very wrong," she said. "Our concern, first and foremost, is for people with metal illness. How do we get more resources, how do we get better facilities to manage their very critical problem?" But "We need to look at the whole issue holistically and no-one's suggesting that mental health patients shouldn't get the best care possible, but it may not be that the site or the hospital for mental health needs to be moved from James Fletcher," he said. "That's one perspective, but there might be other perspectives and I think we need to look at the whole picture." http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200304/s822353.htm Mater Centre's Construction On Course Saturday January 17, 2009 CONSTRUCTION of a mental health centre at Minister Assisting on Health (Mental Health) Barbara Perry was at the site yesterday. She was on a whirlwind tour of the Hunter, having earlier visited Ms Perry said the siting of acute services at the Mater would benefit patients, clinicians and medical staff. The inpatient centre would have greater capacity than the units it would replace at "The new 100-bed inpatient facility will include 10 additional acute mental health beds and four psychiatric emergency care centre treatment spaces," Ms Perry said. Outpatient services and executive and support services will be in the old convent building and the nearby McAuley Centre, which are being refurbished. Hunter New England Health chief executive Nigel Lyons confirmed that tenders for the construction of a 20-bed non-acute mental health centre planned for the James Fletcher site would be called soon, after some delays concerning heritage buildings. http://www.operating.com.au/operating-articles/2009/1/17/mater-centres-construction-on-course/ Case 3 Broadmoor mental health prison in UK where heritage restrictions on an in-use public building have led to 8 patient deaths between 2001-2008. Broadmoor is England's most fanous high security mental institution. It is comprised of buildings which are still in use for this function, but which are heritage listed. There is no money available to build a new structure in the budget and alterations to the existing internal and external areas is forbidden under heritage laws. The process to try and secure an exemption allowing upgrades us not only time consuming and extrenely cumnbersome [as it was deliberately designed to be by heritage fanatics] the costs are massive. It is not unreasonable to say that doing something to a heritage listed item can incur costs five or ten times of doing the same thing to a non-listed item. Broadmoor - a working high security mental health facility for the most disturbed human beings in the country - cannot remove or alter to make safe the window bars which eight patients have used to commit suicide with from 2002-2008. Broadmoor's heritage status blamed for high suicide rate. Comparable institutions without the heritage restrictions report only a fraction of that suicide rate. It is obvious that removing ligature points in mental health facilities reduce the suicide rate. Broadmoor was built in 1863 and it is those old heritage listed features such as the ligature points that no longer represent safe health practice. In fact, have not for more than 60 years. However bars, curtain rails and old hooks used by suicidal to kill or imjure themselves have to be kept due to heritage. By 2002 Broadmoor was described as totally unfit for its purpose and it is believed this was the case decades before that official finding. As a result of these factors, staff turnover is high and the most mentally ill people in the country have the least trained or experienced staff attempting to care for them in the worst facilities. Expecting over-burdened and massively under-resourced staff to 'take on' English heritage's byzzatine laws and structures to try and persuade them to allow them to alter the heritage listed item to stop human death and injury is a task those staff should not be required to take on. Anyone with even a passing familiarity with English heritage authorities can attest to the deacdes of cost and misery they have experienced, often without a workable result at the end. SoHONSW position is that all heritage laws and policies must have an upfront requirement stating that the protection of human life, safety, health and dignity must not be compromised by heritage listing in public or private heritage listed items. There is also a solid argument for applying this same consideration to animals. Items that breach this upfront requirement must not be able to be listed or if already listed, must have a fast track delisting process available. Heritage laws 'sheer madness' The Hilton property is clearly in the worse condition - boarded windows, holes in the walls and covered with graffiti. But just a few kilometres away in more affluent North Fremantle, the same council has approved demolition of a respectable asbestos and weatherboard house from the same 1950s era. Both properties are in City of Fremantle heritage precincts. The North Fremantle house is also listed on the Municipal Heritage Inventory. The Hilton house is not. ``This is sheer madness,'' said Terry Vaughan, whose company bought the Hilton property from the Department of Housing for $430,000 last year. ``There is no consistency in the council decision-making process - it lacks basic common sense and is quite often based on opinions of independent, council-funded, architectural firms and ill-informed councillors. ``Now there is a property sitting there containing asbestos and no progress will be made towards value-adding to the streetscape with a well-designed alternative.'' To make matters worse for Mr Vaughan, the council this week voted 7-5 to approve demolition of a heritage-listed house in King William St, Fremantle, because it had fallen into disrepair. City of Fremantle chief executive Graeme Mackenzie said councillors' demolition decisions were largely based on advice from independent heritage architects, which explained any inconsistencies. He agreed many owners caught in similar situations across the state could abandon their properties out of frustration. ``There is that danger, but councils can serve orders (to repair properties) if they deteriorate to an unacceptable level,'' Mr Mackenzie said. ``It's an unfortunate situation, but the rules are the rules.'' Many of the 1950s former state housing, stumped homes, with wooden steps to the front door, are scattered throughout WA. Large concentrations of them are in suburbs such as Hilton, Hamilton Hill and Willagee. Mr Mackenzie agreed that local government heritage policies presented a ``potential can of worms'', but said the ultimate aim was to protect history. ``Many of these (ex-state housing) properties are regarded as having historical or cultural significance to their areas,'' he said. ``In many cases the homes themselves are representative of an era, which could be considered as essential to a suburb's history and/or streetscape value. ``Just because they are in a poor state or have been vandalised does not give owners the right to demolish them.'' Figures obtained by The Sunday Times from the Department of Housing show that 2691 asbestos-clad homes remain in the public housing stock of 31,950. The Heritage Council of WA said about 100 places on the state register were originally constructed with asbestos material. Case 5 - ongoing harassment of the elderly and unwell over heritage issues Decision delayed on Freo 'heritage' house
Joseph Sapienza July 30, 2009 - 6:44AM A long-running battle between a 72-year-old man and the Fremantle City Council over an "eclectic collection of signs" on his Beaconsfield house will finally come to an end next month. As defence lawyer John Hammond told a Fremantle court yesterday, his client Jan ter Horst has found himself in a "bizarre situation". He said it was the "longest-running prosecution in a Magistrates Court" as ter Horst had been to court about 20 times since the charges were laid. "There's never been any suggestions that Mr ter Horst is breaking the law now - no charges are pending that I'm aware of," Mr Hammond said. The proceedings against Mr ter Horst stemmed over signage and wall writing that were scattered over his Moran Street property between the period of February 12, 2003 and March 24, 2004. The charge was maintaining a sign without a licence. Mr ter Horst has argued he cannot take the signs down because the house was registered on the Municipal Heritage Inventory of the Fremantle council - an issue he claimed he was not aware of since around 2000. Mr Hammond told Magistrate Peter Michelides that since March 2004, the Fremantle council "haven't had any problem with what he's doing, as no (other) charges have been laid". "I don't know how many more years the council wants to wait," he said. In his closing submissions, Mr Hammond said his client had acted within the law both then and now to have the signs on the property, and he told the court the signage was the reason the house was put on the Heritage Inventory. The court was told Mr ter Horst wanted to make changes to his property but he could not because of the listing. The pensioner did not want the house to be listed. Mr Hammond said the prime reasons for the heritage listing were its "eclectic collection of signage and wall writing that identified the owner's concern with local political issues". "This is a building worthy of preservation in part because of its signage," Mr Hammond said, quoting council documents. "The cultural heritage is significant in its own right and conservation policy should be prepared for the building." He argued it would be "illegal to remove the signs" and, if he did so, Mr ter Horst would face prosecution from the Heritage Council and the City of Fremantle. "He would have been committing an illegal act (if he removed the signs) and he was not allowed to take the property off the register," Mr Hammond said. In his arguments, prosecutor Peter Gillett told the Magistrate the heritage listing would not have stopped Mr ter Horst from removing the signs. "This listing didn't prohibit the removal of the signs," he said. "At worst, it meant there was an extra step that was required in that process (to take down the signs)." Mr Gillett said a heritage study of the property was conducted almost a decade before the signs began appearing in 2002. "There was no mention of the signs in the first report," he said, adding the initial report found the house to be a singular example of being in a "prime location" and of "modernist nature". Mr Gillett said there has never been a ban on removing signs from a heritage property, and told the magistrate Mr ter Horst should have obtained legal advice about the matter back in 2003. Earlier, Mr ter Horst took the witness stand and said it was the second time he had been prosecuted for signs affixed to the house he has lived in for the past 35 years. He said the painted writing on the wall outside his house was "to inform the community and public" about the problems he has faced in the past 20 years over property issues he has had with local government. Mr ter Horst asked to have the listing removed, but he was told by the Fremantle council that the property had "heritage value" and should remain on the inventory. He said the property was listed for "years, years and years without anyone telling me". The building was "riddled with concrete cancer and will eventually be demolished" he revealed to the court. Mr ter Horst said the building had been upgraded from a category 3 to a category 2 listing, which "made it even more important". He knew the property was significant because of the signage and the wall writing and was baffled when the council then told him the signage was illegal. "It doesn't make sense, the left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing," Mr ter Horst said. "Experts told me it was a bit of a joke (over its heritage listing) as it is not even 40 years old." He told Mr Hammond he could not do anything with the property while it was on the heritage list. Mr Gillett said there was no evidence the Fremantle council misled the accused about the heritage listing. Mr Michelides reserved his decision on the matter until later next month. http://www.watoday.com.au/wa-news/decision-delayed-on-freo-heritage-house-20090729-e1e0.html. Case 6 Heritage listing resulting in failure to install modern fire equipment putting human lives and most ironically the heritage listed building itself in serious danger.
No alarm, no sprinklers, no fire sumps at HC
First Published : 02 Sep 2009 06:08:00 AM IST Last Updated : ABSENCE of an Automatic Detection and Alarm System (ADAS) in the AP High Court is what led to a major fire mishap on Monday, fire department officials said. Over the last several years, ADAS was one among the many fire safety measures suggested to High Court authorities. In fact, the Fire Department officials even sent a reminder to the Court staff for installing the basic fire safety alarms and equipment. According to the officials, ADAS immediately detects smoke and an alarm goes off. This could have alerted security personnel. In Monday’s incident, the security guard saw smoke almost an hour after fire broke out due to which the fire spread to other floors. Though there are water sumps in the premises of High Court, they are not equipped with fire pumps, which are needed to pump water during fire fighting.“Besides, the building was expected to have a Wet Riser System (WRS) on each floor, so that water from the overhead tank and sump connected to each specific floor, can be used directly from that floor instead of using ladders attached to fire tenders,” Fire Department officials said. They said that implementation of fire safety measures in the High Court is not an easy task as it is a heritage building. Certain alterations might be required for the installation of foolproof fire security. “There is an effective system called Automatic Sprinklers System, which requires alterations near the ceiling. But with the building being a heritage monument, modifications are barred,” they said. Therefore, an alternative arrangement to the sprinklers system has to be found in this specific case. This system starts pressurised sprinkling of water immediately after the fire breaks out. As per the National Building Code (NBC), fire security norms are meant only for highrise buildings, which are more than 15 metre high or above five floors. “But the High Court building comprises of only two floors and therefore fire security measures cannot be insisted upon,” officials informed. “More than 25,000 people visit High Court every day. Had the building been maintained properly, the mishap would not have been a major one,” officials said. They said that even the several bundles of cable wires for the air-conditioners were installed haphazardly. “Most of the cable wires which pass through the corridors are covered with long mats. This led the flames to spread to other areas in the premises,” they said. More than 25,000 valuable books in the Judges library were among those destroyed. Most of the books were over 200 years old. The almirahs were made of rosewood and even those were quite old. Meanwhile, forensic experts who are investigating the cause of fire believe that the “seat of fire” was the Judges chambers on the second floor. Hohttp://www.expressbuzz.com/edition/story.aspx?Title=No+alarm,+no+sprinklers,+no+fire+sumps+at+HC&artid=n49gBv4WrVA=&SectionID=xAV59odivTs=&MainSectionID=wIcBMLGbUJI=&SectionName=BUzPVSKuYv7MFxnS0yZ7ng==&SEO=Automatic%20Detection%20and%20Alarm%20Systemme> Cities > Hyderabad |
Powered by Web Piston Website Builder
|