Can Do Vicki ready to “Save the Regent Cinema”
THE Regent Cinema will have a passionate defender if the Can Do Council team for Central Ward is elected at the Brisbane City Council elections in mid March.
Central Ward’s Can Do representative Vicki Howard has today announced her Can Do volunteers will walk “house to house, unit to unit and business to business” in the next few weeks to sign a petition to save The Regent Cinema.
Ms Howard believes current proposals to rid the Queen Street Mall precinct of the much-loved historic Regent Cinema are not in the public interest.
“I will fight any plans that threaten our city’s heritage and compromise the public amenity of the city’s major pedestrian thoroughfare,” Ms Howard said.
“Under the CityCentre MasterPlan there are provisions which condition height limits on proposed development in the Queen Street Mall precinct, as well as around historically significant architecture. I will be pursuing these key values – and the signatures of people who care about our city’s heritage – to the absolute limit to protect the Regent Cinema.”
Ms Howard said it was very suspicious that the person heading up the powerful Urban Planning and Economic Development Committee – who is also the local councillor – should only just realise the importance of the Regent Cinema.
“The proposed development of the area in and around this important piece of Brisbane heritage should have been conditioned on its preservation at the very beginning,” Ms Howard said.
Ms Howard said there was a real sense of déjà vu about this whole sorry saga.
She said that in early 2004, residents living near New Farm Park accidentally uncovered secret plans by the former Labor Council Administration to build a major convention and function centre in the historically-significant New Farm Park.
“It does not seem so long ago that Brisbane said goodbye to some charming old buildings along Edward Street, including the Shingle Inn. Most of us will recall that we were assured by then Lord Mayor (Soorley) and the local councillor (Hinchliffe) that everything would be fine,” Ms Howard said.
“The Labor councillor for Central Ward and Chair of Urban Planning – David Hinchliffe – was intimately involved in developing and progressing both these plans.”
“It was Campbell Newman and his team who has fought to restore and protect our city’s heritage,” she said.
Ms Howard said that if she was elected as the Can Do councillor for Central Ward she would continue her fight to save The Regent Cinema.
“Our city’s past belongs to its future. With challenges come opportunities and a balanced outcome that protects what we value most best serves the public interest,” she said.
“Protecting and enhancing the heritage values of the Regent Cinema are non-negotiable public conditions to any future development plans for this Queen Street Mall precinct as far as I am concerned.”