THEY say you can't stop progress, but a group of locals is gearing up to fight a plan that would see the ageing Morisset Memorial Hall replaced by modern community facilities to be built by the council.
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The locals have the backing of the RSL, who have vowed to defend the hall, which was opened on Armistice Day, 1927.
Lake Macquarie City Council is about to commission a feasibility study into the new facilities, as part of the Town Centre Area Plan for Morisset.
The council said it would consult with the Morisset Memorial Hall and Literary Institute management committee and the hall's user groups.
The plan is to provide the groups with the use of the new council-owned facilities.
"It is intended that any new library and community facility will cater to a wide range of groups, including those that currently use the memorial hall," a council spokesperson said.
But the hall committee is looking this gift horse squarely in the mouth.
Committee treasurer Val Badham said the council's plan for new community facilities had merit, but not at the expense of the memorial hall.
"There is an enormous emotional attachment to this hall," Mrs Badham said.
"The hall and the land are owned by the people of Morisset [by the Morisset Memorial Hall and Literary Institute Incorporated], and the people want it to stay."
President of the South Lake Macquarie RSL sub-Branch, Daniel Sloan, said the hall was first and foremost a memorial to ex-servicemen from the area.
"A lot of our senior members have their names on the honour rolls here," he said.
Mr Sloan rejected any compromise that would involve re-housing the honour rolls in a new facility.
"The building here is the memorial," he said.
He said the 320 members in the local sub-branch cannot support the demolition of a war memorial.
"We are strongly against knocking down any memorial," he said.
"At the end of the day this is a living, working memorial."
Committee president Ken Cooper, 84, who has had a 40-year association with the hall, said council "owns acres and acres of land" and should consider other sites.
Vice-president Lyn Wilson made her debut at the hall in 1961 and said she had been involved with the building for most of her life.
"The hall belongs to the people of the town and it has such history," she said.
Council's position
IN 2010, a Lake Macquarie City Council heritage inventory listed Morisset Memorial Hall as having ‘‘high local significance’’.
But this listing does not guarantee the hall protection from redevelopment.
It simply means that the heritage significance of the hall must ‘‘be considered’’ regarding any future development, a council spokesperson said.
The new facilities would aim to meet the needs of the current and future residents of Morisset.
They would include a large new library, full commercial kitchen, meeting rooms with extensive seating, and a council customer service centre.
Who uses the hall
TREASURER Val Badham said the hall had permanent hirers who accounted for 40 hours each week.
‘‘We now have about 300 people coming through every week,’’ she said.
Among the users were dance and drama groups, Morisset Spinners and Weavers, the Christadelphians, and a homework group for students.
‘‘And the hall has the only sprung dance floor in the district,’’ she said.
Any suspicions that the council might have that the hall is in a bad state of repair and under-used were misguided, Mrs Badham said.
