By NOEL MURPHY
GOVERNMENT should buy central Geelong’s dilapidated Ritz flats if the owners refuse or are unable to fix the heritage-listed property, according to Geelong’s building workers’ union.
CFMEU organiser Brendan Murphy told the Independent he hoped this week’s 10,000-strong Grocon protest in Melbourne following the deaths of three people in a recent wall collapse, would drive City Hall to swiftly resolve the Ritz stand-off.
Council this week issued a second emergency order to fence off the building’s badly cracked southern wall after owner Tim Truong failed to meet a seven-day demand to provide expert analysis on the wall’s condition.
“We would hope after the Grocon episode that the council would be right on to it,” Mr Murphy said.
“It’s dragged on and on and on. It’s a hazard and something definite needs to be done.”
Mr Murphy said compulsorily acquiring the property and on-selling it to someone who would protect its heritage elements in a new development would be “an appropriate move”.
“The owner just doesn’t seem to have the capacity to do anything,” he said.
Mayor Keith Fagg said council was attempting to “achieve a satisfactory outcome that will not involve going through the courts”.
The latest order requires the Ritz owners to barricade off the adjoining car park out from the southern wall to at least the height of the two-storey building.
The Independent requested comment from State Planning Minister Matthew Guy about the potential for compulsory acquisition of the property but he had not responded by the time the Independent when to press.
