Eve Jeffery
A proposal to relocate Byron’s Sunday markets from the Butler Street reserve to the town’s beachfront and whether it would benefit from the move divided stallholders at a meeting at the Byron Community Centre on Monday.
The centre, which manages the Byron market, hosted the information session to further discuss a proposal to relocate the monthly Sunday market from Butler Street to the beachfront.
About 70 interested parties attended the meeting. The turnout showed that the issue will be very contentious, and it would appear that a lot more work and discussion needs to take place before there is a resolution.
‘The information session was to encourage stallholders to get informed and have their say about whether they want to move the markets to the beachfront’, community centre general manager Paul Spooner said.
‘The proposal has been divided into a two-stage process to achieve the best outcome,’ Mr Spooner said.
‘The first stage is a vote by stallholders to see if they support the move to the beachfront. If at least 60 per cent of stallholders do support the move, the second stage will be undertaken by the community centre, they will approach Council to seek approval for such a move.’
Objections to the concept came from stallholders who felt that both parking and site degradation would hamper the move. Others felt that money would be better spent upgrading the current site.
Discussion also focussed on the voting process, with some stallholders concerned that if they were identified in their vote, it may cause complications. Several voiced the hope that votes could remain anonymous.
Community centre president David Sweet says that the plan to move the market was being considered because the iconic Byron Bay beachfront may generate additional revenue for stallholders and might also attract additional tourists to Byron Bay.
‘The markets that we hold at the beachfront location (three times a year) are a great success for stallholders,’ Mr Sweet said.
‘However we appreciate that it might not work for everyone and we welcome the diverse views.
‘Even if we received the required 60 per cent support for the move we are well aware of the issues that could arise in the second stage of the process, (and) many of those issues were raised by market management and stallholders.
‘We made it clear that even if stallholders support the move it is in no way guaranteed that Council will approve it.
‘We believe the beachfront is a better site for the markets, however, that is only our opinion and it is stallholders’ opinions that count in this case.’
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