Ray Crispin is urging Towong Council to keep Lord’s Hut, a slab hut believed to be about 150 years old that stands on a property in Yabba Road, behind Towong Street.

It’s right in the path of the site for the planned Tallangatta Integrated Community Centre, for which the first sod was turned this week.

Towong Council has issued a survey to residents on the hut’s future and will make a decision on whether to keep or destroy it at next month’s council meeting — but Mr Crispin fears it’s a fait accompli.

The hut is the last of the old slab huts built in Tallangatta; Lord’s had been used as a family home, workers’ cottage and even served as a school for a time. It was relocated to its current site in the 1980s.

He said the hut’s location had been in limbo for years and accused the council of not wanting to preserve the town’s history.

“All we want to do is save it and put it somewhere sensible where people can see it and appreciate it,” he said.

“I don’t see why we couldn’t get it heritage listed.”

The council recently issued a survey to Tallangatta residents — by post and also available online — and received 46 responses; or 7 per cent of the total number sent out.

It asked residents if they wanted to relocate, destroy or store the hut; how much they wanted to spend on it; and where it could be relocated to.

Towong mayor David Wortmann said a number of people wanted to keep the hut while others were concerned about how much it would cost.

“While Lord’s Hut is not a council-owned asset, it is important for us to understand how the wider community feels about its value and its connection with Tallangatta’s history before it is moved,” he said.

He said the council had been considering the hut’s future since 2012.

Tenders were also sought in 2011 for its relocation but the council did not comment on why this did not occur at that time.