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THE PADDINGTONPADDINGTON PEOPLE PASSIONATE FOR PADDINGTON The official newsletter of The Paddington Society. Registered by Australia Post Publication No NBG 1470. paper ISSUE 169 | MAY 2014 Over the Palisade Update - NSW Planning Bill In this edition... A review of the proposed NSW Planning • Paddington Society’s 50th Word is that the L'Etoile Restaurant in Legislation by The Paddington Society revealed, among other matters, that: Anniversary Celebrations Five Ways will be reopening very soon as • NSW Planning Bill update a European restaurant - with new owners, • Protection of Heritage Conservation chef and culinary team. Areas, like Paddington would be • Children’s Photo Comp threatened as it was unclear whether the • The Four in Hand Restaurant is Saving Our Public Laneways status of existing Heritage Development currently undergoing significant renovations • Paddington Bowling Club Control Plans would be retained. to their dining room which will give chef Colin Fassnidge an even greater opportunity to • The role of the Heritage Council to protect strut his culinary expertise. NSW’s Heritage would have been greatly The Paddington Society diminished. Another top-notch chef Guillaume is 50 years old this year! Brahimi will open his new restaurant at what • A significant curtailing of the opportunity was the iconic Darcy's Restaurant on the for the community to challenge details Monday 11 August 2014 corner of Hargrave and Elizabeth Streets. of developments at the DA stage which threatened the loss and destruction of Justin Hemmes has recently taken elements of architectural heritage items Celebrate at our grand possession of the Paddington Arms in and inappropriate alterations to buildings Oxford Street opposite the Paddington Anniversary Feast at within the Paddington Conservation Area. Markets. Hemmes has indicated a major Paddington Town Hall. In our submission to the Planning Reform redevelopment of the site but as yet, there Living legend, actor Jack Thompson, White Paper and Exposure Bill in June 2013 has been no decision on the food focus for son of founding members of the Society we also stated the need to prohibit the use this venue. Word has it that the family owns John and Pat Thompson is guest speaker. of Private Certifiers in Conservation Areas two properties on the Oxford Street strip, Come and party with neighbours and friends or, at least require those to be registered and intends opening both as restaurants. in the beautifully renovated Town Hall, great as having the necessary heritage expertise Sir Peter Cosgrove, Australia’s 26th food and wine too, all welcome! Let’s mark and skills. Governor-General spent his childhood in 50 years well. The Planning Bill 2013 prepared Paddington. It’s not every day that community in response to submissions was a organisations survive fifty years in a Vicki Joyner received an award disappointment. The Minister did announce rapidly changing world of vested interests. Council’s citizenship reception for her that the role of the Heritage Council would The Paddington Society, formed in tireless work on Paddington’s community be retained, did not pursue the Code 1964, has been representing community garden. Assessable category of development and interests, protecting heritage, fighting over- no changes were introduced to the role of D The pedestrian/cyclist bridge over development and for people’s amenity in Private Certifiers in Conservation Areas. Anzac Parade planned, prepared, approved this unique village of international renown… The Bill was introduced to the NSW and commissioned we understand, without and is one of the oldest community Parliament in October 2013. In November, tender process by the RMS (beneficiary the advocate organisations in Australia. SCG Trust) has many opponents across all the Minister for Planning and Infrastructure, levels. Alex Greenwich MP, BIKESydney, announced that he would withdraw the BIKEast, City of Sydney, Centennial Park Planning Bills until February 2014 as a Community Consultative Committee, The result of heavy amendments made to these Paddington Society and several local Bills in the Upper House by the Labor, resident associations all agree it¹s poor Greens and Shooters and Fishers parties. design in the wrong place. The Government has been considering its options and undertaking further negotiations with ‘stakeholders’. The new Minister is yet to indicate what she intends to do with the Planning Bills. However, media reports suggest that one option is to use the existing planning legislation to achieve change. This has been given credence by recently gazetted changes to State Environmental Planning Policy-Exempt and Complying Development, which was amended to expand the categories that could be certified as complying development. The Paddington Society has requested to RMS photomontage of proposed bridge over Anzac Parade. make direct representation to the Minister or to the Planning New South Wales to Woollahra Council's upgrade of further advocate its position. Elizabeth and Underwood Streets is a Paddington Town Hall - built 1891 and refurbished 2012 great improvement. by City of Sydney. On the Streets Our Laneways - Public interest or Private monopoly Paddington is a walking suburb and preservation - ‘The pedestrian network the intricate network of laneways is part of of laneways…… have great historic a rich urban fabric. This historic feature of significance and should be retained.’ Paddington developed over 180 years from In decades past, some sections of this the original land grants in the Colony, to the pedestrian network have been quietly gentry villas, to subdivisions of the late 19th eroded – here and there the rear courtyard century - a process which more by accident fence moved a metre or two into a dunny than by intent, has resulted in a complex lane and taken into private property, no one environment that can never be reproduced cared too much, Paddington as a place today - no matter how hard we might try - no wasn’t valued then as it is now. Now we do matter how skillfully we might plan. care. This is encroachment by stealth. As local resident and global leader in The issue is about a public right-of-way town planning Greg Young said recently rather than a private monopoly. “Paddington, the laneways, the twists, that’s While the notion of public interest may its history - it’s our Venice”. have diminished today - no one would Yet in the last month a section of our dream of trusting responsibility for shared laneway network connecting two streets laneways to an individual’s title - for that Laneway now completely gated has been gated to stop public access for reason we still have Local Government to exclusive private use. The laneway in play a role in advocating public interest for Paddington Bowling Club question may be on the title of a neighbour, the local community. redevelopment update but it has been a public walkway since the The Paddington Society is seeking further subdivision of last century. legal advice on public access closures. For more than a decade local residents, It was a common practice in earlier Council has previously acted in the public Councillors, Independent State Members times for public laneways to be placed on interest to keep these laneways open as and friends of Quarry Street, have been neighbouring property titles with the proviso was the original intention. It is Council’s trying to get to the bottom of what is really of a right-of-way for access and that there duty to ensure that such public amenities happening at the Paddington Bowling Club. be no building work on the land to obstruct are preserved from private monopoly - There’s much more to the story than a DA this. It would never have been the intention the right of public access for all residents for a child care centre. of this old legal practice to see these must be protected. Otherwise our laneway Recently an excellent expose by laneways closed from general public use. network could become an extinct species in respected journalist and activist Wendy Modern legal practice would not our world class heritage suburb Bacon, researched and summarised manage laneways in this manner. These The current owners of Paddington are this complex tale revealing how private laneways, archaic as the title of ownership merely custodians of this wonderful heritage developers can ‘acquire’ Crown land arrangements may be, are part of the - and it is our responsibility, each and every masquerading as concerned citizens - first character of Paddington. This is why one of us, to protect this precious commodity published by the New Matilda, a nonprofit, Woollahra Council’s Heritage Conservation and ensure that it is passed on to future independent media. Area DCP for Paddington calls for laneway generations in the most intact state possible. Here’s the summary intro: ‘At one level, this is a community story stadium in the park. about a development application for a child Did You Know? As early as 1965 the Paddington Society care centre on Crown land in the inner first came up with the idea of Paddington city suburb of Paddington. On another, it’s Celebrating 50 years as a unique area, both architecturally and a story about how state authorities and historically, and emphasised the need for This year The Paddington Society corporate regulators failed residents and it to be preserved and that Paddington be celebrates its 50th anniversary. local Councillors who struggled to hold zoned as a Special Area of Outstanding politicians, developers, and public servants From the outset, the aims of the Architectural and Historical Interest. accountable for dealings with publically Paddington Society have been almost However, in 1967 when the City Planning owned open space. entirely concerned with preserving the Scheme was exhibited, zoning was It’s a tangled web of closed-door environmental and social amenity of the unchanged allowing high-rise low-cost negotiations and business deals that Paddington Area for its residents, with a building, and alarmingly there were several disadvantaged a community club, leaving strong emphasis on conservation.