Council to decide on Rose Cottage

Gosford Council will decide tonight (Tuesday) if it will relocate and renovate Bensville store and Rose Cottage residence.

In a report from its Community Services section, the council will be told that the cottage is not considered suitable for use as a community facility.

This was "due to the issues of cost, lack of space for a growing population, accessibility for users, its fibro cladding and lack of area for car parking."

However, the officer who considered the relocation of the building reported that "discussions with community representatives indicated there is a significant attachment to the two buildings and therefore council should consider relocating the buildings, making them secure and investigating options for the refurbishment over time".

The owners of the house and store had requested permission to demolish the structures to make way for a mixed commercial and residential development on the site.

When the council's heritage committee objected to the demolition of the buildings on the grounds of heritage value, the owners offered the council the two buildings free of charge, provided the council paid relocation costs.

It was argued that the two structures had been moved to the Bensville site as recently as the 1960s and therefore any heritage value was in the structures themselves and nothing to do with their location.

The owner's application to build was approved with the condition that council investigate the possibility of taking the owners up on the offer of relocationg the buildings to a council-owned property nearby for use as a community building.

Jonathan Reichard, council agenda NM.006, February 25