NARACOORTE Lucindale Council’s aim to give the community a sense of history should not come at the expense of people’s privacy, according to Ken Grundy.
The former mayor owns a heritage-listed property, Lake Roy homestead at Lochaber, and believes people should have the choice if they want their properties listed.
The council created a local heritage list of about 80 properties originally, spending $62,000 in the process, and voted to accept the list at its January meeting to avoid the risk of the Minister for Planning John Rau sending them back to the start of the process.
Four properties were removed from the list after the Local Heritage Advisory Committee visited each of them and recommended they be removed last November.
Mr Grundy was one of the 10 property owners who objected to their properties being listed, but Lake Roy wasn’t removed from the list as requested.
Mr Grundy, along with several other owners whose properties were listed against their wishes, including Tim Donaldson and Bryan Shuard, spoke twice from the public gallery at council meetings to vent their anger, including most recently at the January meeting.
“It’s an invasion of privacy by denying us the right to not be listed,” Mr Grundy later told the Herald.
“We love the place, and we’re looking after it, but it’s ours. It’s taken away a portion of our ownership.”
Despite the listing objection, Mr Grundy believes a local heritage list is a good idea “provided the owners are willing to be involved”.
He moved to correct claims made at the last council meeting in January that he knew about the heritage list during his time as former mayor.
“We knew that they were preparing a heritage list, but we didn’t know what the implications were,” he said.
Mr Grundy said he appreciated the efforts of the current councillors to excuse the main six properties whose owners had objected - but he held little hope any changes would be made.
“If we ever want to do something to the external part of the building, we have to get approval.
“There will definitely be some restrictions, we think that it’s our private business what we do with it.”
Mr Grundy said the “local” aspect of the heritage list made a mockery of council.
“It is a local heritage list, compiled by local people, yet councillors have been virtually overridden by the Minister,” Mr Grundy said.
“I think the local part of the listing is a bit of a joke.”
At the January council meeting he told councillors that for the Minister to accept some of their recommendations but ignore others was “a sleight on council really.
“You’ve done all the work, made the decision...to have somebody from higher up refute what you’ve done is an absolute sleight on you.
“I’m absolutely puzzled by the process, some people haven’t even objected and they’re removed from the list.”
Mr Grundy’s son Lachlan also believes the heritage list has taken away a piece of the family’s private ownership rights.
While he appreciated the effort the councillors had gone to, he was disappointed the family property wasn’t removed from the list.
“I’d like to thank the councillors for supporting us,” he said.
“They were under pressure to make a decision because they didn’t want to see the $62,000 wasted.
“(But) it hasn’t been wasted, they still have the information they need. “
Mr Grundy said he had met ministerial planning advisers last November but had achieved very little.
“We were not allowed to record any verbal assurances - we were told before the meeting we weren’t allowed to,” he said.
“As the home owner, I’m allowed to let my house fall down...if I want to look after it, the way I want to, I’ll have them breathing down my neck.
“It’s an infringement on private ownership and property.
“At some stage, they’ve got to have a bit of faith in a property owner that they are going to look after that to their best ability.
“It’s not a community building, it’s our private home.”
Agreeing with those comments when speaking at the January council meeting, Mr Donaldson and Mr Shuard both felt their rights as property owners had been infringed.
Mr Shuard said the council seemed to support the stance of people opposed to their properties being listed, and he implored councillors to maintain the support.
“Use consideration, common sense and common decency and support the people who have come here to speak,” he urged.
“Previously the majority of councillors voted in favour of what we had to say.
“In view of how it was conducted and the mess which has occurred, I would think this council wouldn’t want to be associated with this heritage list.”
Councillors spoke at the meeting of their desire to support those people whose properties had been listed against their wishes.
They urged director of planning, environment and community development Steve Bourne and council staff to do whatever they could to ensure the owners’ efforts to maintain or improve their properties weren’t hindered by the listing.
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