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Nobby's Lighthouse restaurant plan raises heritage law questions

ABC Newcastle, 20 December 2006

A Newcastle-based conservationist says plans to build a restaurant on the city's iconic Nobby's Lighthouse site contravene a Federal Government law designed to protect significant heritage items.

Doug Lithgow of the Northern Parks and Playgrounds Movement says he has asked the federal Department of Environment and Heritage to reassess the proposal.

Mr Lithgow says the new structures will block public views of the lighthouse and he has also questioned Newcastle council's assessment of the development application for the restaurant.

"Well the council has acted I think wrongly in the way they looked at it because they didn't look at the Commonwealth heritage values," he said.

"It just destroys the lighthouse because it actually goes around the lighthouse and destroys its heritage value. The Department of Environment and Heritage has to reconsider it."

But a Newcastle council spokesman says the development application for the Nobby's restaurant was given the all-clear by the appropriate body, the New South Wales Heritage Council.

He says the site is owned by the Newcastle Port Corporation, so federal legislation does not apply.

Source: http://abc.net.au/news/items/200612/1815235.htm?newcastle or download article as a PDF