The Minister for Planning has notified the Heritage Council of Victoria that he is ”calling-in” the matter of the potential registration of Royal Park under the Heritage Act. More than 150 submissions were made supporting the inclusion of the Park on the Register. The Minister has instructed the Heritage Council to not conduct a hearing into the matter. The conduct of the matter is unseemly, and opens the way for the EW Link works to proceed with no statutory input from the state heritage agency Heritage Victoria. The proposed cut-and-cover works will have adverse impacts on the landscape values of the Park. The government has also indicated that it will accept and consider ”non-conforming” tenders for the works that amend the extent of required tunneling works under the Park and replace them also with cut-and-cover.

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