THE Southlake community is split over what should happen to Morisset Memorial Hall.
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Lake Macquarie City Council has plans to construct a new community building as part of a civic hub and town square in Morisset.
Morisset Memorial Hall stands in the heart of the proposed site.
So if the council's plans are to go ahead unaltered, the hall must go.
Opposing views were put at a community workshop on Thursday.
Some locals welcomed plans for the new community building - as long as it respected the heritage aspect of the hall.
Other locals wanted the hall left untouched.
Des Green, South Lake Macquarie RSL sub-branch vice-president, said the RSL was stuck between a rock and a hard place.
He said the memorial hall was dear to the RSL, but local members considered themselves part of a forward-thinking branch.
"Progress will go forward one way or another," Mr Green said.
"If this facility does go ahead, the only demand we want council to hear from us is that it must maintain that heritage factor. It was a memorial hall. The memorial aspect of it must take pride of place alongside the [new] community facility."
This could be achieved in various ways, such as in a memorial in the town square, and historical displays within the new library, he said.
The Morisset Memorial Hall management committee has criticised the location of the proposed community building, which they said has accessibility issues, and isn't the true centre of Morisset.
"The management committee is very supportive of more community facilities, but not at the expense of the hall," Morisset Memorial Hall public officer Val Badham said.
The committee has put forward an alternative site of similar size, further down Yambo Street, behind Woolworths.
Mrs Badham said the alternative site was close to the medical centre and didn't have accessibility issues.
At Thursday night's workshop, the council said it had solved the accessibility problem, pointing to a proposed pedestrian pathway that would start from the top of Station Street, run through the community building and lead into the town square on Yambo Street.
Stephen McAlister, co-ordinator of social and community planning, said the gradient of the pedestrian footpath would be 1:14, which is the government recommendation for disabled accessibility.
"The gradient is so slight you won't need handrails," he said.
John Quinlan, president of Sunshine Progress Association, said the council's proposal had a lot of merit.
"This is a major opportunity to update the town, to modernise it with an attractive building, and attract tourists," Mr Quinlan said.
Who owns the site?
THE land the hall sits on is not Crown Land.
It is held in freehold ownership by the incorporated body of the Memorial Hall Literary Institute Inc, as a public trust.
‘‘The Memorial Hall and Literary Institute is managed by Memorial Hall Literary Institute Inc as a public trust managed under the provisions of the Trustees of Schools of Arts Enabling Act 1902,’’ a spokesperson for Crown Lands said.
The council accepts that the trust owns the land.
But it said it intends to work in partnership with the trust ‘‘to enhance the existing community facilities to cater for the current and future residents of the entire Morisset area’’.
The trust, however, is not interested in any partnership that would see the hall destroyed.