News
August 10th 2023
Council of the City of Sydney issued an Order to stop work on roofing repairs to Cleveland House which were previously approve by Heritage NSW. It appears that council was reacting to a complaint received from a member of the public ‘concerned’ with the extent of repairs required. Council is now insisting on the lodgement of a DA for repairs. This order effectively ceases urgent and necessary repairs to the roof and exposes the building to potential damages being wrought from the increased weather elements being experienced in our time.
August 10th 2023
Notice received from Department of Planning and Environment of a small grant approval for the re-roofing works and repairs essential for Cleveland House earlier approved under a S60 application (No 2015/S60/151). This grant was awarded under the 2023-2025 Caring for State Heritage scheme and is for the sum of $30,000.00.
Council of the City of Sydney has approved a remedial DA as previously approved by Heritage NSW. However, there are further conditions yet to be satisfied.
June 2024
The stop work order by the Council of the City of Sydney is still in place, despite the remedial DA approval, and awaiting hopeful resolution through the planning process.
October 2024
Finally, after 4 years of communications it appears that the outstanding GTAs (General Terms of Approval) relating to the construction of the new toilet block may have been resolved. A modification to the original IDA is required to be submitted with very little change to the original application. This new toilet block enables the removal of the old facilities, constructed in the 1940s, which severely impact the House and it’s appearance. It will also enable the reconstruction of the courtyard verandah as originally intended by Francis Greenway (with ample evidence to that effect).
April 2025
Heritage NSW gave notice that an important element for the Cleveland House proposed reconstruction application programme dated February 1, 2016 which was “deferred pending further research”, was finally “not approved”. This element concerned the external render removal which, ironically, was previously approved by Heritage in 1993. This was related to the re-roof project and ultimately the remedial DA requested by the Council of the City of Sydney. This delay now appears to revoke the grant (or part thereof) because a requested extension of time has been rejected by Heritage NSW. In the meantime the cost of this part of the reconstruction process has almost doubled.
August 2025
Council has advised that the previously imposed (August 2023) Stop Work Order has been lifted. But this does not permit works to proceed until a Construction Certificate is approved.