The Government has stepped-in to block the demolition of Ringo Starr's Liverpool birthplace.

In a dramatic 11th hour move, Housing Minister Grant Shapps imposed special restrictions on the plans to flatten 9 Madryn Street and 200 other terraced homes.

Beatles fans praised the decision to stop planning chiefs sending in bulldozers without permission from the Department of Communities and Local Government.

Ringo's old home is threatened with destruction along with two hundred homes in the ‘Welsh Streets’ in the city's Dingle area.

Councillors on Liverpool's planning committee dismissed impassioned pleas and voted in favour of demolition.

But they were thwarted by Housing Minister Grant Shapps who imposed legal block on their move.

He said there must be consideration to whether an Environmental Impact Assessment is required — a move that could mean a delay of 12 months or more.

The move came in an email and letter received less than 24 hours before the planning committee was due to consider the scheme.

This is the house Ringo Starr has said he doesn't consider to be his childhood home, and has only a minority of Liverpudlians behind the scheme to save it. Whilst I question how it can actually be cheaper to knock down thousands of homes and rebuild from scratch, rather than renovate (I live in Picton, where the same thing is happening — my home, identical to those already demolished and those waiting to go, is perfectly fit for habitation, though it could do with thicker walls...) I think stopping the demolitions for this reason is completely daft. And while I'm at it — why on earth keep banging on about the Beatles: Liverpool has a lot more to be proud of than them!

— Rosie, Liverpool, 20/4/2011 14:41

The Bjelke-Petersen Government decided to demolish Brisbane's Bellevue Hotel after a secret report warned the historic building would cost $2 million to restore.

The controversial decision to knock down the iconic building in 1979 remains shrouded in mystery, despite today's release of confidential cabinet documents from 30 years ago.

The National Trust had been campaigning to preserve the three-storey Bellevue Hotel, which stood on the corner of George and Alice streets and was built in the 1880s.
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Cabinet documents show that the then-premier, Joh Bjelke-Petersen, took a submission to his frontbench colleagues arguing it would be costly to fix major faults in the building's structure.

By contrast, the document said "the cost of demolition would be in the order of $40,000".

Sir Joh supposedly attached a report by the Department of Works to support his cabinet submission, but this document was absent from the official minutes, according to the Queensland State Archives office.

On April 17, 1979, cabinet members approved the demolition of the iconic hotel, subject to further discussions by the joint government parties at an unspecified date.

But it is unclear when that meeting of MPs was actually held and, just three days after the cabinet decision, the Deen Brothers moved to demolish the hotel by nightfall.

The Bellevue Hotel had hosted overseas visitors including Frank Sinatra, Katharine Hepburn, Nat 'King' Cole and Louis Armstrong.

Information and Public Works Minister Robert Schwarten said the hotel's supporters had hoped to continue to lobby the government in a bid to reverse the decision.

However, the building was "hastily and unceremoniously demolished" on April 20.