Trusting lot full of oldfashioned fire

I QUESTIONED in My view, 31 January, whether people had much fire in their belly about the demolition by neglect of the Old Coach House at Coach House Lane, off Kenilworth Avenue, Beaconsfield.
Well, plenty of people showed plenty of fire about damage to the building during a public meeting at Beaconsfield on Monday night convened by the Casey Cardinia branch of the National Trust.
Speaker after speaker condemned the situation that allowed a developer to sign a Section 173 agreement with the council that the building would be retained and then take no action to prevent wanton and continued damage.
Speakers said much of the damage to the building was structural, weakening the integrity of the architecture and that this had happened during the last few months.
This building, perhaps, came too early in the evolvement of the new look Shire of Cardinia now facing enormous development decisions, as did the neighbouring City of Casey.
The council has yet to tighten its heritage laws and, to say the least, they are lax.
While the council came in for criticism over that point, we all should be watchdog over such things and bear some responsibility.
Cardinia mayor Kate Lempriere told the meeting that the council had already put in process measures to tighten its heritage laws and isn’t likely to be caught short again as it was with the Old Coach House.
And I have no doubt that the National Trust also has become much more alert and proactive over the issue.
This augurs well for future planning in the municipality.
Cr Lempriere said heritage properties in the shire would be listed and I welcome that.
We have a strong National Trust operating in Cardinia and Casey and such things come under that organisation’s sphere of concern.
Because of this, the trust might be able to save the Old Coach House, but, if not, I am sure it will be ready and waiting to prevent this sort of damage to our heritage in the future.
One speaker suggested that the council section off the small part of land that the Old Coach House is on and at least retain the building until it could be repaired.
This seems to me to be the most likely way of saving the building and less likely to cause the present owner grief.
The developer last week withdrew an application to the council to have the building demolished, and thanks for this goes to the National Trust for its proactive stance on the issue.
That is a start, because demolition of the Old Coach House should not be considered an option despite the damage.