Northbrook Lane
COUNCIL is holding firm on plans to demolish a derelict house in Manilla as it prepares to meet with the owner of the property.
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Tamworth Regional Council (TRC) was preparing to tear down the house on Northbrook Ln, which has been the centre of a number of complaints from locals.
Planning director Peter Thompson said council will now sit down with the owner after more than two years trying to reach out to her.
“From our perspective, there’s no doubt the appropriate measure is to demolish the home, remove the debris, including the asbestos and clean up the site,” Mr Thompson said.
“It’s just a question of how we now implement that.”
Mr Thompson said he doesn’t expect an “extraordinary delay” on a resolution.
“If someone contacts us for the first time and says ‘I don’t want you to do this’, then it’s reasonable for us to give that person a forum to explain to us what they want to address that safety issue,” Mr Thompson said.
“We’ve spoken to her once and we expect to speak to her again this week.”
Mr Thompson was mindful of how long the community had been waiting for action on the fire-damaged property.
“If her answer is that she doesn’t want to clean it up, then we will just keep going down the order path, because it has been there for too long now and the community shouldn’t have to wait a longer period to have it cleaned up,” he said.
“In a best-case scenario, we’ll be able to negotiate with the owner and the owner will undertake the clean up and it may be that the land is sold by agreement of her to part pay for the clean up and then she would take whatever residuary is.”
The owner was contacted for comment.