The latest episode in the travesty known as the Rural Land Use Strategy — or Rural Land Grab Strategy as it really is — was played out at last week’s Byron Shire Council meeting.
The issues raised in the 830 residents’ submissions — an overwhelming majority of which expressed major dissatisfaction with the RLUS — were echoed in the responses by several government departments.
In particular the Department of Planning and Environment’s commentary on the strategy showed it up for the hurried, non-complying, consultation-free joke that we all knew it was.
A cynical attempt driven by Crs Sol Ibrahim, Di Woods, Rose Wanchap, Alan Hunter and Chris Cubis to set in stone the suburbanisation of large tracts of the shire.
Despite various governmental departments’ opposition, the recommendation against it by council staff and the overwhelming opposition of the community, these councillors voted for it to go ahead whilst adding last minute inclusions on the day that no one had time to assess.
Please do not vote for any of these councillors should they run in the upcoming election. They have delivered developers a gold mine and shown, yet again, contempt for even the pretence of good planning and contempt for the people of Byron Shire.
Cate Coorey, president, Byron Residents’ Group
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