We understand documentation has been circulated stating that Guildford would lose its ‘Heritage Tag/Status’ if the new development shown in preliminary concepts is approved. This is a myth.
Guildford has quite rightly been recognised as a town of historical significance on a number of heritage lists, the most important of which is the City of Swan’s identification of Guildford as a ‘Conservation Precinct’. This is the most important because it provides the statutory controls to guide both conservation and new development through the provisions of the City’s Town Planning Scheme and the associated Guildford Conservation Policy.
Development in the precinct would not result in the lose of the heritage status of Guildford. Rather the guiding documents anticipate that development will occur in Guildford over time (as it does in historic towns all over the world). In particular, the policy states that new development ‘should be visually distinguishable from the heritage buildings in the town . . . so that the heritage values are not diminished by replication’.
The Guildford Historic Town is included on the following Heritage Lists:
• The Register of the National Estate (RNE) – NOTE: The RNE was closed in 2007 and is no longer a statutory list. All references to the Register of the National Estate were removed from the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC Act) on 19 February 2012. The RNE is maintained on a non-statutory basis as a publicly available archive and educational resource.
• Classified by the National Trust of Australia (WA) – NOTE: The National Trust’s List of Classified Places does not have a statutory role; its purpose is educational in that it supports its advocacy activities as well as being an important record of Western Australia’s heritage.
• City of Swan Conservation Precinct – Guildford is included in the City of Swan’s Town Planning Scheme 9 (TPS 9) as a Conservation Precinct, and the City has adopted a Conservation Policy (the Guildford Conservation Policy).
A heritage place does not lose its associations or value simply because a new element is introduced. Guildford is a special place and the project team will be working hard to refine ideas for the vacant site to ensure that the new development responds to the character of Guildford in a positive way that is of its own time.