Heritage Office staff will be integrated into the Department
of Planning’s development assessment and policy teams, with heritage experts
placed in teams assessing development proposals.
The Heritage Office supports the Heritage Council of NSW,
which will continue to function as a statutory body advising the Minister of
Planning, Frank Sartor.
A Planning Department spokesman said the change would
“elevate consideration of heritage matters into the heart of the
department’s core activities”.
But the merger will exacerbate a conflict between protection
of heritage and the planning process, said the Opposition’s heritage spokesman,
Brad Hazzard.
“This isn’t heritage – it is heresy. We are throwing
out the expertise developed in a close-knit unit and assimilating it, in the
pejorative sense, into planning,” Mr Hazzard said.
The department spokesman said a stand-alone unit would
service the Heritage Council, including overseeing proposed state heritage
listings. The spokesman said existing heritage staff would continue to
undertake heritage work and there would be no forced or voluntary redundancies.
He said also Mr Sartor had taken advantage of provisions
under the Heritage Act to appoint a panel of three people to advise him on a
recommendation by the Heritage Council for listing on the state heritage
register.
The changes follow the December appointment of Gabrielle
Kibble as chairwoman of the Heritage Council. Ms Kibble is the former head of
NSW Urban Affairs and Planning, and administrator of Liverpool City Council.
She was responsible for a Heritage Act review, which has
been handed to Mr Sartor. He told the Herald last week it had not yet gone to
cabinet.