After years of impasse there could at last be opportunities for new directions in development on the old Australian Portland Cement Works site. Since the closure of the historic site in the late 1980s a good deal of remediation work has been carried out by the owners, Blue Circle-Boral. But according to Council and other critics the work has not gone far enough or quickly enough to rectify the legacy of a derelict industrial site from an industry that dominated Portland for more than a century. Much of the debate related to the future of the site has revolved around the old company cottages in Wolgan Street. The cottages are dilapidated and abandoned but there are conflicting interests that on one hand want to see them preserved and restored for their heritage value and others who claim they are beyond salvation and should be demolished.