Save Morelands Bluestone Submission

7/28/2019 Save Morelands Bluestone Submission

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Re: Bluestone Consultation, Strategic Transport and Property,Moreland City Council

On the 6th of May, 2012 I, together with my partner Dr Geoff Hogg, wrote aletter to the Editor of theSunday Age, which when published, was entitled,

History Underfoot. In this we wrote:As residents for 30 years, one of the quintessential pleasures of living in

Brunswick is to flaneur its lanesto look up and see trees laden with lemons,to look down and see among the cobbles, signs of past lives. Lost coins, cast

iron manhole covers and autographed plumbing plates echoing the crafts ofanother era. When our children were at primary school they could study thesealleys to understand the technology of Roman road building. Short sightedactions by government deny our past and cheapen our future.

Since then, a meeting of 310 residents at the Brunswick Town has culminatedin the emergence of a mass action group to preserve and conserve the bluestone lanes. Over 2000 residents have signed the petition calling for the fullprotection of the lanes and the Save the Moreland Bluestones Lanes (SMBL)Face book site currently has 1355 friends with a total reach this last week

alone of 4872 people.

This submission - based on responses from SMBL members, residents andexperts in the fields of heritage protection, accountancy, environmentalmanagement, social health and cultural development - aims to contribute tothe consultation process arising from the Citizens Working Party OptionsPaper by commenting on its key aspects and options.

Heritage Value and Urban Character

The Options Paper comments regarding "Heritage value and urban character"minimise and skim over the heritage value of the bluestones lanes. Critically,the paper fails to acknowledge the central recommendations of the UNESCOsupported Burra Charter in informing approaches to the conservation andprotection of the bluestone lanes, i.e.

Article 6. Burra Charter process6.1 The cultural significance of a place and other issues affecting its futureare best understood by a sequence of collecting and analysing informationbefore making decisions. Understanding cultural significance comes first, thendevelopment of policy and finally management of the place in accordancewith the policy.


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6.2 The policy for managing a place must be based on an understanding of itscultural significance.6.3 Policy development should also include consideration of other factorsaffecting the future of a place such as the owners needs, resources, externalconstraints and its physical condition

It is only with the context of the above that the Options Papers statement ofadvice given by Emeritus Professor Miles Lewis makes sense in:

"encouraging Moreland to become A Bluestone City and retain as many of itsbluestone laneways as possible... (and) that the truest treatment is to leaveexisting bluestone laneways as untouched as possible...(whilst recognizing)the need to reconstruct some laneways, retaining bluestone as much aspossible balancing against other needs".

In other words, as Professor Lewis advised the first SMBL Forum last year, the

reasons for conservation and preservation are in the historical and industriallinks between the area of Moreland and its network of bluestone lanes. Thebluestone lanes were honed from the great pure basaltic plain created by amassive lava flow emerging from a volcanic eruption in the Palaeolithic eranorth of what is now Lancefield. This material was made into flints and otherimplements by Aboriginal communities, and, scooped easily from the soil, toform the first homes of the European settlers before it was quarried and cutinto the form suitable for the post Gold Rush buildings of MarvellousMelbourne. Today our bluestone lanes, laid in a traditional form, not onlyrepresent a link with these industrial and historical epochs but also provide

the opportunity for the development of a new, environmentally sustainablestate of the art industry employing young people in the City of Moreland;further underscoring the special asset that our bluestones provide for our city.

FACT

The National Trust in its letter to Moreland Council in 2012 wrote that it"opposed ...the destruction of bluestone lanes and ...their progressivereplacement with concrete" (caused by) historic damage to bluestones ...gone... unrepaired"


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Our Moreland bluestone lanes are a source of pride for our community. This photois of one of the many clean up days in which neighbours get together to socialise,

plant gardens, sweep and weed our lanes.

Accessibility and Transport Issues

The Moreland Council Rights of Way Strategy 2011 - 2021 failed to considerthe impact of preserving and conserving all the bluestone lanes for disabilityaccess. Pockets within Council only began to consider this issue when theystarted to look around for additional justification for their decision to concrete

the lanes. During the CWG process a number of opinions were canvassed.Vision Design Development, whom Council consulted, in fact found that theretention of the lanes would not conflict with Council's obligations under the

Anti-Discrimination Act. A second report commissioned by Council through theMoreland Disability Advisory Council, also documented that, what reallyconcerned most surveyed people with disabilities, was not the bluestone lanesbut inadequately maintained and inaccessible footpaths. SMBL supports thedevelopment ofa strategy of continuous accessible paths across driveways,laneways and kerbsto improve footpath usage. This latter approach tosupporting access, also known as end treatment, is widely used in adjacent

cities including Melbourne and Yarra.


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In addition, SMBL questions how concrete, which has a life span of 25 years -the result of cracking and lifting - compared with bluestone which has alifespan of 100 years, will reduce trip hazards? Our research suggests that infact the surface of bluestone assists to train pedestrian perception to reducetrip hazards.

FACT

The Burra Charter identifies new work under Article 22 of its Charter:22.1 New work such as additions to the place may be acceptable where itdoes not distort or obscure the cultural significance of the place, or detractfrom its interpretation and appreciation. New work may be sympathetic if itssiting, bulk, form, scale, character, colour, texture and material are similar tothe existing fabric, but imitation should be avoided.


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Howard - Mountfield Street Lane Feast: A meeting place for All

Construction Methods

Experience and evidence from Whitehorse, Port Phillip and Blue MountainsCities which base their guidelines for conservation and preservation on theBurra Charter indicates there is considerable capacity to maintain traditionalapproaches whilst utilizing up to date technologies taking account of all soiltypes such as the challenges of Morelands clay soil which is prone tomovement. In fact the National Trust indicates in its letter to Moreland

Council that bluestones laid with adequate space between each stone areparticularly well suited to the movement of the underlying soil structure. In


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addition, Whitehorse and Port Phillip Council reports note that the kinds ofproblems experienced by the City of Moreland in recent years are directlyrelated to patterns of spikes" in new property development generating highimpact damage by additional trucks accessing development sites through rearaccess instead of front street access roads. This situation has

been aggravated acknowledged by Council staff's own admission - by thefact that until last year no repairs of any substance had been made toMoreland's lanes for over five years. In other words our lanes have beenneglected over the previous years and Council is now playing catch up.

As the Options Paper notes, in May 2012 Councillors voted to Place on holdthe Rights of Way policy of replacing bluestone in non-heritage laneways withconcrete to allow for a further round of consultation to occur on this issue.Since then SMBL has documented 5 breaches of council's resolution. In lessthan 3 months residents have sent visual and/or written evidence of so called'repairs' using concrete and in some cases underground drainage despitecouncil's ongoing consultation. These (dis)repairs include work on heritageand non heritage lanes and include the John Street Lane Brunswick, HudsonStreet Lane Coburg, Penny Black Lane Brunswick, and two lanes off EdmendsStreet Brunswick.

The options paper also argues that the laying of bluestones on crushed rock isnot an option because this approach would require methods not currentlyprovided in the market. The fact that these approaches are used in otherCouncils such as Port Philip and Whitehorse suggests that this is, in fact, notthe case. Our recent research both here and overseas in Germany, New York,

England and New Zealand also suggests that, not only are there alternativeskills and approaches available, but that these approaches, combiningpermeable water sensitive design and concern for heritage significance, arenow mandatory overseas.

We are very sensitive to the delays in repair works and the impact on cyclistsand some residents who have had to put up with waiting for repairs, howeveras highlighted above, this has not been the result of the unsuitability ofbluestones as a surface, but the lack of an international evidence basedapproach to repair work by Council staff and contractors. Of course, we would

expect there would need to be trials of alternative construction methodsappropriate for different locations and soil types; this approach as the BurraCharter indicates is the correct approach to conservation management.

FACT

National Trust of Australia's advice is that concrete is very expensive to repairwhereas bluestone is much cheaper as most of the damage is localised.

Concrete also has a life cycle age of 25 years before it requires repair.


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Edmend Street Lane under repair

Counting the Real Cost

The projected budget for all works on bluestone lanes based on the 3different approaches currently mooted by Council is less that 2% of initialcosts as a proportion of the capital works budget. The options papersposition is a red herring which at best obscures rational analysis and at worstlays the seeds of division and disharmony within the community.

The controversies and misinformation around the costs of reconstructing thebluestone lanes have always puzzled us. In 2010/2011 Council received less


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than 26% of its income for Community Services - including Maternal and ChildHealth, Aged Care Services, Community Development, the Arts and Heritage -from internal Council sources, i.e. residents rates. As is clearly demonstratedon public record, the remaining approximately 74% was received fromFederal, State and philanthropic sources. To argue that somehow the saving

of the bluestones lanes will jeopardize the viability of these services is a clearnonsense.

The Options Paper case study of the laneway constructed in 2012 furtherconfuses the issue of real cost. Firstly, the method used in this case study isnot the method recommended by SMBL. This method by which the re-laidbluestones were set in concrete with underlying drainage is the mostexpensive approach both in terms of initial financial cost and impact on theenvironment and is one we certainly dont support. Rather, our preferredmethods, based on Councils own figures provided to the CWG, reflect a 0%to less than 2% cost difference, compared concreting, over a four yearperiod. The traditional method vs. concrete is the same cost in terms of initialcosts as a proportion of capital works income, i.e. 2011/12:0.7%,2012/13:0.34%, 2013/14:0.11% and 2014/15:0:29%. The full summary ofthe cost of the existing methods canvassed by Council based on percentageof capital works income is tabled below. Not factored into this table is the costof the CWG process itself. Nor was the laying of kerbs, guttering andchannelling considered within the scope of the CWG; hence these are notincluded in the costs. All that expense and Council still hasnt dealt with thefull infrastructure of the lanes!

INITIAL COSTS OF NON HERITAGE LANES AS A PROPORTIONOF CAPITAL WORKS INCOME

2011/20122012/20132013/20142014/2015

Concrete/Asphalt 0.07% 0.34% 0.11% 0.29%

Bluestonetraditional

0.07% 0.34% 0.11% 0.29%

Bluestone

traditional withadditionalsand/soil

/rock(5%)

0.08% 0.35% 0.12% 0.30%

Bluestonetraditional oncrushed rock orbuilt drainage(20%)

0.09% 0.39% 0.13% 0.34%

Bluestone in

concrete

0.14% 0.68% 0.22% 0.58%


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Jan Humphries, CWG Member. The Cost of Saving the Bluestone presented to aSave the Bluestones Forum

The degradation of our lanes: the long term costof neglect and unchecked development

Environmental SustainabilitySince the SMBL campaign began, the issue of bluestones as the mostenvironmentally friendly surface for our lanes has received wide communityand expert support. Typical was one of our first letters in June 2012 from theMerri Creek Management Committee who expressed concern about theimpact of storm water run off from the non permeable concreted surface intoour drains through to the Merri Creek with the resultant build up ofecolianddestruction of plant, insect and animal life. This view is also supported byEnvironmental Scientist Rob Catchglove in his paper pithily entitled "Watersensitive urban design and laneways: the 210 million litre question in whichhe argued thatthe environmental benefits of a traditionally laid bluestonelaneway... is its ability to infiltrate water and prevent runoff (and associated

pollution) from going into local creeks and bays.


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Another issue raised by community and expert opinion has been the carboncontent of concrete vs bluestone/sand - the components of the traditionalapproach to laying bluestone lanes. Dr. Enda Crossin, Program Director of theRMIT Centre for Design within the School of Architecture wrote to us that "Ifthe bluestones were cut over 100 years ago, then the greenhouse emissions

of their production is effectively zero...(whilst) "with sand you are looking at agreenhouse impact of about 8 kg CO2-eq per cubic meter. This he comparedwith "low-strength concrete (say 25MPa)... (with ) greenhouse impacts (of)about 275 kg CO2-eq per cubic meter". He gave as the source of hiscalculations the Australasian Unit Process Life Cycle Inventory, assessed usingIPCC 2007 factors.

The Three Options

We come to the choice of the three options within the Options Paper.

Option 1: Retain the current policy. Reconstruct bluestone laneways inbluestone only in or abutting heritage areas, and replace with concreteeverywhere else.

Clearly this is rejected on heritage, cultural significance and costgrounds.

Option 2Retain bluestone laneways in heritage areas PLUS retain someadditional bluestone laneways in the non-heritage areas using an assessmenttool based on the example provided by Councils recently appointed Heritage

advisor.

Equally, this option is to be rejected on heritagegrounds found inArticle 6 of the Burra Charter as already stated. This option clearlydemonstrates a lack of commitment to the integrity of the networkof bluestone lanes as whole, to the traditional method of layingbluestones, and to sustainable and water sensitive design.

Option 3 Retain all bluestone laneways in all parts of the City.Within the paper this option also has the following small print:

Under this option, all bluestone laneways would be reconstructed inbluestone regardless of their location or condition. This option prioritises theheritage value over accessibility and other factors by preserving the highestamount of bluestone in the city and from an urban character perspectiveretains the most complete network of bluestone laneways. This is the mostcostly option, and potentially displaces other works, or slows down thelaneway reconstruction program.

This option is also rejected. We take exception to Council staffputting words in our mouth that SMBL prioritises heritage value

over accessibility. We care deeply about social accessibility andissues of social connection for all within our community of Moreland.


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We join with Dr Michael Marmot, renowned World HealthOrganisation medical scientist and health promotion expert whoargued that peoples lifestyles and the conditions in which they liveand work strongly influence their social and physical health and thatcultural interconnectedness is a key influence on the social

determinants of the health of a community. In addition, we stronglyurge Council to consider not only the social, environmental andcultural significance of our bluestone lanes but also their potentialfor the creation of a long term niche industry based on ourharnessing of worlds best practice in conservation and preservationthrough their protection.

Marito Rodriguez, 2012:One of the many beautiful contemporary art works to befound within the network ofMorelands bluestone lanes, contributing to our cityscontinuing unique vibrancy and liveability.

Suzy Pinchen,

Spokesperson,Save Morelands Bluestone Lanes.July 18th, 2013

Documents

Save Morelands Bluestone Submission