The hordes of people descending on Byron and Brunswick are beyond the pale. It’s almost impossible for locals to get in and out of Byron, and Brunswick is unrecognisable with hundreds of festival-goers hogging the cafes and ATM.
Byron is over-sold, over-promoted and the few who benefit financially do so at a huge price to the community. I recently spent some time in Honolulu on business and, as I know the city well, I was appalled by the current state – which is the future of Byron Shire unless something is done to stop the over-selling. Honolulu is now a town full of tourists with queues to every restaurant, cafe, tourist attraction.
Waikiki Beach is a like a mega feeding lot with almost no room to lay a towel. Everything unique and special about Honolulu has gone, replaced with ‘tourist attractions’. Locals have been pushed out and the only real employment opportunities are now serving the endless stream of tourists.
To give approval to the Falls Festival at a time when Byron and Bruns are already bursting at the seams with holiday-makers is nothing but madness and gross irresponsibility on the part of the state government and our useless council. Any suggestion that Byron is a green shire is absolute crap. According to the Telegraph, Byron now has a reputation as one of the most violent places in the state. Byron has four times the state average of assaults and twice as many assaults as central Sydney.
The Australian Medical Association spokesman Dr Blake Eddington, an emergency department specialist at Tweed Heads, says that you’re 19 times more likely to get assaulted in Byron and 15 times more likely to have a sexual assault.
Who pays the price? Emergency department staff, the police and paramedics. What is the real cost of this invasion? In truth, it’s costing the Earth.
Sue Arnold, Ocean Shores
