As Fast Buck$ said so eloquently (Echo June 10), ‘the aesthetics of street furniture is no trivial matter’.
Therefore I would like to know, and understand, the reason for the giant grey box that has quietly arisen adjacent to the crossing and roundabout on Lawson St, Byron Bay. This ugly installation has been placed in the most prime position in town. It not only blocks street view, but has also taken space away from the uplifting street entertainers and their onlookers, who used to enjoy that central part of town.
I assume this anonymous eyesore is some kind of ‘electrical’ fit-out , and if so, why is it not underground?
This is just another example of council/utilities not caring a less about the aesthetics of our ‘individualist’ and charming town.
Bianca Wolanski, Byron Bay
The reasons it is above ground are as follows (just a short list.
Repair and maintenance requirements mean that access is required, this means a chamber roughly 2m larger in all dimensions.
Access: entrance from where? Environmental controls are required for confined space access.
Existing services already buried at the site would need to be relocated or replaced.
The area sits on sand and would therefore require significant works.
Watertable and flooding would require pumps and water proofing.
Constant dewatering of the surrounding ground might also be required unless you want the chamber floating up, and thereby damaging all the wiring.
Rabid locals screaming about the disruption while the construction occurred.
SIGNIFICANT expense that would then be passed on to the ever beleaguered retails of the bay.