Councillors at the Rural City of Wodonga have gone against the advice of the independent planning panel appointed to review the recent heritage amendment and have unilaterally – without any discussion in the Council chamber – decided to remove at the 12th hour more than 50 places from the amendment.  Letter to Border Mail.

We are working with concerned locals to pursue the matter so that controls are put iunto place as recommended by the Panel. Amendment C97 proposed to introduce 83 properties to the heritage overlay. The amendment has been ten years in the making and would have meant that Wodonga finally had a proper heritage overlay to recognise and protect places of local heritage significance. To date only a tiny handful of places have been protected. Report in Border Mail March 2014.

The independent Planning Panel Report for heritage Amendment C97 supported the heritage overlays proposed by Wodonga City Council.  The amendment affects 83 properties comprising 45 individually significant heritage places and one precinct of 38 properties. Of just seven submissions needing to be referred to the Panel, two places have been recommended to be deleted from the amendment, two are to have boundaries modified and the other three to remain. The small number of submissions reflected very well on the Council officers’ and consultants’ management of the amendment.