The old Catholic Presbytery building in Prince Street is set to be demolished.
According to the Cobar Catholic Church’s centenary book the building was built along with the new Catholic school in 1965, and was the former home of Catholic parish priests,
The presbytery has been vacant for the past nine years after the property and adjacent vacant block of land were sold by the church to Nanga Parbat Pty Ltd (which owns the Khan’s supermarket chain).
The new owners had intentions of building a new supermarket on the site however Cobar Shire Council rejected their Development Application for a number of reasons.
Council’s manager of planning and environment Stephen Poulter reports council has received a number of complaints from the public about the dilapidated presbytery building.
Mr Poulter said this led them to contact the owners to have the building demolished.
“There was a range of reasons why the building was required to be demolished,” Mr Poulter said.
“These include it being dilapidated and unsightly, encouraging vandalism and being accessible to the public.
“This demolition work necessitated lodgement of a Development Application,” Mr Poulter explained.
“We are continuing to urge the owners to commence demolition of the building as soon as possible given the concerns relating to its current state.
“We understand at this time that demolition activities are being arranged for the new supermarket site [on the former New Occidental Hotel site on the corner of Marshall and Lewis streets] and this site at the same time,” he said.
