Jennifer Pittorino
Star Weekly is looking back at the best stories of last year and this is one of them.
Rocco Cipriano has been working at the same shop in Tottenham since he was 15 years old, and is now battling Maribyrnong council to keep his shop off the heritage list.
Mr Cipriano migrated to Melbourne from Italy, where he got his first job as an apprentice barber at the shop at 169 Sunshine Road, Tottenham.
In 1965 Mr Cipriano started his new trade and then in 1971 he purchased the barber shop for himself, where it stayed as Rocky’s Hairstylist until 2014.
“I was really happy with my own little barber shop. It was beautiful, I unfortunately had to stop because of my wife’s illness followed by my own,” he said.
Mr Cipriano retired when his wife became terminally ill, leading him to lease the shop out for the last 10 years.
In this time, Mr Cipriano was his wife’s primary carer until she died in 2018.
This shop is Mr Cipriano’s pride and joy. He desperately asks that Maribyrnong council does not impose a heritage overly over the shop as he feels it will impact him greatly.
“My shop is ordinary, there is nothing on the outside to show it is heritage, in fact most of it is all new,” he said.
“There was a fire in my shop, everything had to be replaced including the roof, there is nothing resembling the original structure or a heritage shop.”
Mr Cipriano’s shop sits on a strip with four others which council plans on imposing a heritage overlay over.
Planning Panels Victoria independently assesses planning proposals by considering submissions put forth by community members.
It gives submitters an opportunity to be heard in an informal, non-judicial manner and give expert advice to the planning authority, who in in this case is Maribyrnong council.
This panel consisted of three experts who disagreed with councils recommendation and concluded that the shops should not have a heritage overlay as it is austere and has no connection to the post war era.
Despite the panel’s expert opinion, council said it did not agree with the planning panel and would seek to include the heritage overlay over the shops.
“It’s very frustrating for me, the fact the experts have agreed with me and council is ignoring them is incredible,” Mr Cipriano said.
“This overlay will ruin my chances of selling the property when the time comes.”
Mr Cipriano said it costs him roughly $12,000 a year to keep the shop running, yet he can’t afford to maintain it and will soon be forced to sell.
“I am not a millionaire, I worked very hard to get that shop and now council is ruining my hard work. Now I won’t be able to do anything with this property,” he said.
“Council needs to look after its people , instead they should be fixing the potholes at the back of the shop which is dangerous to retailers.”
Mr Cipriano has faced great stress in the last several years and now feels a bigger burden has been placed on him.
“This is extremely stressful for me and my daughter. I would like the council to listen to the experts advice and leave my shop alone.”
Council declined to comment and will deliver its verdict at the council meeting on Tuesday, June 20.
