A petition was mounted by the Heritage Society, and sent to the then Governor, Murray MacLehose on 29 July 1977. The Government rejected the petition, and its request for an independent inquiry into the draft area development plan. It argued that a new cultural complex would assume the role enjoyed by the building, and that the plans for a new cultural complex to be erected on the site were too far advanced to be altered. The Heritage society charged that the Government was engaged in dirty tricks, and was misleading the public.