House must be restored: Trust

By Jim Mynard
A PUBLIC meeting at Beaconsfield has called on the Shire of Cardinia to ensure that the Old Coach House at Old Coach House Lane, Beaconsfield is secured and restored to sound condition.
The meeting also asked the council to negotiate with the police to ensure that loiterers about the place be removed.
The Casey Cardinia Branch of the National Trust and the Beaconsfield Progress Association organised the meeting after concerns that the building was in danger of demolition. Meeting chairman Ian Good told about 50 people at the meeting that the gathering was to provide an opportunity for people to speak up about an issue they needed to be vocal about.
Trust branch president Ruth Crofts said the objective of the National Trust was to save the landmark building.
“We need to encourage the council not to allow a permit for demolition of the building,” she said.
However, Cardinia mayor Kate Lempriere later told the meeting the owner had withdrawn an application for a permit to demolish the house.
Mrs Crofts said the Trust wanted to show a clear view that it should be retained because little of Beaconsfield’s heritage remained.
She said the developer who owned the property had signed a Section 173 agreement to retain the building and that he should honour the intent of that agreement.
“We are facing demolition by neglect and this must not be allowed to continue,” she said.
Mrs Crofts condemned a situation where a developer could sign an agreement and not abide by it.
“We do not want this type of situation to happen again and we offer our support to the council to see that it doesn’t happen again,” she said.
A nearby resident said vandalism began on the property during last September and that he was frustrated because he was unable to get police support to have it stopped.
“I rang the Pakenham Police and they told me to ring the Narre Warren Police.
“The Narre Warren Police told me then to ring the Pakenham Police and the Pakenham Police told me to ring 000. Triple 0 told me that they had no one in the area so I should ring the Pakenham Police.”
He said that he was in the building during May last year and that it was then in good order, but major structural damage had since occurred.
One speaker suggested the council should subdivide the land on which the building is situated as part of the development levy that the developer was obliged to provide.