Federal Hotels to challenge Wrest Point casino site's heritage listing in court

Gambling giant Federal Hotels is taking legal action after finding its Wrest Point site in Sandy Bay had been heritage listed.

It wants the court to declare Hobart's Interim Planning Scheme invalid.

Federal Hotels argues in its writ that it was not properly consulted over a heritage listing applied to the entire Wrest Point site. (Picture: ABC News)

 "Unfortunately and unbeknownst to us the new Hobart Interim Planning Scheme has heritage listed our entire site," Federal Hotels' Daniel Hanna said.

The company alleged the rules of natural justice were breached because the Planning Minister and the Hobart City Council failed to notify them that the entire site would be heritage listed.

"We've gone through our records and we can't find any correspondence or any phone calls to advise us that we were going to be heritage listed," Mr Hanna said.

He said they had been negotiating with the Heritage Council on some aspects of the site.

"We recognise that there are some parts of the Wrest Point site that do have heritage values and need to be preserved and maintained," he said.

Property Council executive director Brian Wightman said at the very least, affected property owners needed to be advised that they were on the list.

"We're absolutely astounded with the process," he said.

"Hobart City Council have put an additional 1,500 properties on the [heritage] list without informing people.

"Now they either need to stop the process or at the very least write to all the affected owners to ensure that there's some procedural fairness."

The State Government and the Hobart City Council were both contacted but declined to comment.

The case goes to the Supreme Court next month.

Source: ABC News, June 24^th 2015