The Nationals candidate for Ballina received 355 primary votes out of 1,333 counted at the Bangalow polling booth. That is 27 per cent or roughly one quarter.
The heartland of the rail trail lobby is Bangalow. Nowhere else in the shire has there been the same amount of meetings and fundraising for the rail trail and concerted effort to convince the residents of its merit.
It is a key town in their strategy for a ‘world class product’ , so Cameron Arnold, who himself was flabbergastered at a recent Bangalow public meeting at the amount of money thrown at the rail trail project.
The National Party took a $50 million investment into rail trail as one of their major policy planks to the recent election.
All other major parties or independents in our electorate did not want to have the tracks ripped up for a cycling way.
Many conclusions can be drawn from this result.
One definitely cannot be drawn: that there is an overwhelming support for ripping up the tracks to make way for a cycling way. Rather the opposite. People want an alternative.
Jens Krause, Byron Bay
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. 
