Dear The Hon. Mark Raymond SPEAKMAN, SC MP, Adam Crouch MP Member for Terrigal, Gosford City Councillors, and Paul Anderson CEO Gosford City Council

We ask you to endorse the NSW State Heritage listing of the Avoca Beach Picture Theatre for the following reasons:

1.     The relevant authorities agree that the Avoca Picture Theatre is a heritage building. The National Trust listed the Theatre in 2001, and while the Trust listing has no legal force, they are very careful with what they certify as heritage. The New South Wales Heritage Office on numerous occasions has suggested heritage listing to Gosford City Council.

2.     Heritage listing will protect the Theatre from the overly large development that the owners are determined to build, despite the Hunters' (owners/developers) last development application for a five-theatre multiplex being rejected by Council on 7 major issues. 

3.     The owners claim that Heritage listing will reduce the viability of the theatre. They have presented no evidence that this is true. History is a great attraction. Already there are signs on all roads to Avoca announcing our “historic theatre”, from which the owners have enjoyed great benefit. 

4.     If the Theatre's heritage status is confirmed, tourist bodies at the Local and State levels will be able to work with the listing to greater effect. Other boutique cinemas are heritage listed and find that it's an asset, not an impediment. For example, both The Kinema at Narooma and the Sawtell Cinema (which will soon reopen with two screens) are heritage listed, and their owners are delighted with that status. 

5.     Heritage listing won't stop the Theatre expanding, but it will mean that its heritage charm is truly taken into account and preserved - which is something that both the National Trust and the NSW State Heritage Office say is highly desirable. Going further, the National Trust says that since the theatre is so important in the history of cinemas in coastal seaside towns, for it not to be protected would be a tragedy. 

6.     At the moment the owners are running a campaign to have the heritage evaluation prematurely stopped (the current Interim Heritage Order extends to March 2016). They claim they are already protecting the Theatre’s heritage, but their previous plans suggest otherwise. The ambience of the current, more intimate Theatre is lost in the plans for a cinema multiplex, hence also negating its current cultural significance. The 2012 DA ensures the historic charm of the current foyer will disappear, with the French doors out onto the lawn and the beautiful northern facade consumed by an extension. A toilet block was planned to stretch across the current ticket counter. This strongly contradicts the claim that the old theatre will be preserved. 

7. The community does not want the iconic and historic Avoca Theatre lost through overdevelopment of the site. (Over 1900 people signed a previous petition against DA46621/2012 at www.change.org/p/say-no-to-the-overdevelopment-of-avoca-beach-theatre.)

In our busy consumer lives it's important we have places that endure - places full of memories and the charm of yesteryear. When heritage is combined with the most modern of projection facilities, you could have the perfect blend of old and new.