THE Castle House's resurrection is doomed with Indigo Shire rejecting a proposal for a caravan park on the Mayday Hills site which included Darryl Kerrigan's former abode being a caretaker's residence.
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The council on Tuesday night rejected a staff recommendation to approve the proposed development for a second time with only mayor Bernard Gaffney and Cr James Trenery voting in support of the caravan park proposal put forward by business partners George Fendyk and Geoff Lucas.
Former mayor Jenny O'Connor led the charge against the Beechworth caravan park proposal claiming its vibe wasn't sympathetic to the heritage and cultural value of "this important site"..
"We are already dealing with issues about removal of trees, lack of adequate maintenance of buildings, heritage issues and in fact the illegal construction of a building," she said.
"We've had examples over and over again of mismanagement of this site.
"This is a significant heritage site and putting in 35 permanent accommodation cabins is in no way in keeping with that.
"It is setting up virtually a ghetto situation."
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Cr Larry Goldsworthy, Cr Dianne Shepheard, Cr Sophie Price and Cr Barb Murdoch also voted against the proposal.
Mr Fendyk said he was dumbfounded by the decision.
"For six years we've been trying to make Mayday Hills a village and a caravan park was part of it," he said.
"They all think it's going to happen without money.
"They can watch it all fall over because that is what is going to happen.
"It's not going to hurt me. It's going to hurt Beechworth.
"I can't believe they made such a stupid decision."
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