by CARMELO AMALFI
OPPONENTS of a skate plaza on Fremantle’s Esplanade have bypassed the council and gone straight to the WA heritage council.
They have asked for the reserve to get an interim listing on the state register in the hope of derailing the plaza, as any further decisions would have to be run past the watchdog.
Driving the application, which will be considered on February 22, is former Monument Hill warden Chris Grisewood, who describes the lack of a listing as the council’s biggest administrative oversight.
“It’s an enormous oversight or deliberate omission,” he told the Herald in the shade of a Norfolk pine tree by the skate park site.
The 2004 Fremantle citizen of the year says he fought a similar battle to get Monument Hill listed after council heritage officers suggested a water playground and skateboard facilities on the sacred site.
“The Esplanade is an icon that ranks with the Roundhouse and other important sites in Fremantle, yet it has no protection.”
But mayor Brad Pettitt called his bluff this week, telling the Herald, “I believe Fremantle council would strongly support it (heritage listing).”
Dr Pettitt says the council and state lands department are meeting shortly to discuss having the Esplanade changed from a C-class to A-class reserve.
“The initial advice we have is an amendment of the reserve to A-class will not amend the ‘recreation’ purpose therefore there would be no grounds for the state to reject a ‘lease’ or ‘licence’ for a skate park as the use falls within the purpose of the reserve,” he says.
“Heritage listing would not exclude a skate plaza that was sensitively designed.”
Architect Philip Griffiths, who wrote the conservation plan sent to the register committee as part of the listing application, says the heritage council could suspend approvals for the skate park if it affected the heritage values of the Esplanade.
“The approving authority has to refer the matter to the heritage council which offers advice and, under the Act, the city is not supposed to give approvals against that advice.”
Mr Griffiths, who is also working on a conservation plan for another unlisted park in Perth—Kings Park—says the Esplanade is important to not only Fremantle, but WA.
State heritage office executive director Graeme Gammie says if the heritage council’s register committee decides the Esplanade has potential state significance, “a full heritage assessment will be carried out”.