As residents, neighbours and friends of the Soldiers Hill Heritage Precinct, we are concerned about Ballarat City Council's plans to replace the historic and significant grass and gravel verges with sealed and line marked car parking spaces to address a shortfall of 430 car parking spaces associated with the Gov Hub project. Changes to the streetscape in this Heritage Precinct setting should be very well considered, due to the impact on the significance of place. The potential loss of increasingly rare streetscapes, with intact grass verges and heritage built fabric, are of grave concern. 

The Council requires private homeowners to adhere to the Planning Scheme requirements concerning heritage. Counter-intuitively, as the custodian of publicly owned streetscapes, the Council appears to be disregarding any heritage considerations to deliver car parking targets and objectives. These proposed actions also seem to run counter to the Council’s support for a World Heritage Bid for the central Victorian goldfields, particularly focused on the region’s landscapes and urban heritage. 

We urge the Council to:

• Reverse their decision to seal the grass and gravel verges in Soldiers Hill 
• Engage in meaningful and transparent consultation with residents and heritage experts to develop a cohesive strategy for the preservation and enhancement of the Soldiers Hill Heritage Precinct streetscape.