Nick Brunsgard

2014 candidate for City of Prospect.
Heritage survey responses.

What do you think Council's role is in protecting and conserving heritage?
1. Identification of historic and conservation worthy assets. 2. Balancing needs to retain character and build the heritage of tomorrow. 3. Consulting and listening to our community's concerns: e,g, over location of multi-storey developments, sufficiency of parking, amount of public spaces to compensate reductions of private yards and recreational areas for children, families and our elderly.
What measures and incentives do you support to protect and conserve local heritage?
Ongoing register of community supported local heritage assets
What is the most important heritage protection issue in your local government area?
Pressure by state government to push for more urban infill and high density multi-storey housing whilst simultaneously failing to invest in sufficient shared recreational spaces amongst our streets, other facilites and the transport and infrastructure that would be needed for the increased resultant populations.
What policies and programs will you advocate to protect and conserve heritage in your local area?
More consistency in codes and minimum standards for development and conservation zoning and approval processes that can be adopted across all metroplitan councils, with each council retaining control over individual development approvals in their area.
Do you support local Councils retaining development approval powers for projects over $3m in value?
Yes- $3M is an arbitrary amount, and local government should be free to choose to retain approval powers for ALL proposed developments within their council areas. Otherwise, why elect councils if they are effectively treated as unworthy to be trusted to make decisions in the best interest of their communities ?
Do you have any other thoughts about the protection of heritage in your Council area?
Increased transparency and public notification processes for major developments would be a good basis to start from. Communities are only empowered to better support or raise any critical concerns when they are given clear facts of what is proposed for their streets and neighbourhood precincts. For more information see www.facebook.com/nick.brunsgard