Dailan Pugh’s commentary (Echonetdaily, January 6) on the proposal for West Byron is inaccurate and misleading and the landowners encourage the people of Byron Bay and surrounds to review the proposal for themselves before forming an opinion.
There is no suggestion that the site be developed without appropriate contributions to infrastructure, including roads. The proposal includes a commitment from the landowners of more than $6 million towards the Byron Bay bypass.
The potential population increases and resulting traffic increases mentioned by Mr Pugh are wildly inflated and provide no reference to his sources.
The proposal documentation contains verifiable modelling from a variety of expert sources and show much lower population and traffic increases.
More than 30 per cent of the site is proposed for conservation zoning. Cleared and degraded farmland would be revegetated and would increase the area of koala habitat and wildlife corridors, with a focus on connecting riparian areas around the Belongil Creek estuary.
The ‘proposed drain’ Mr Pugh encourages people to oppose already exists and is regularly excavated by Council’s heavy machinery to provide drainage from the industrial estate.
We agree that rehabilitation of the drain to a more natural state is appropriate to minimise oxidation of potential acid sulphate soils and the proposal would address this at development application stage.
Those concerned by Mr Pugh’s assertions should review the documentation on the proposal – and the bona fides of the experts who have contributed – to see for themselves how all of these issues have been considered and addressed.
Further information can be found at www.westbyronproject.com.au and the proposal documentation is on the NSW Planning & Infrastructure website at http://bit.ly/westbp.
Stuart Murray, project manager, West Byron Project
For four decades The Echo has printed the stories some people loved, some people hated, and some pretended not to read. If you want us to keep telling the truth, the real truth, not the sugar-coated version. We’ll need your support to keep the presses rolling. 
