Antoinette Ensbey, Bangalow
The ‘Fit for the Future’ government program has it all to progress our lives backwards down the lane we just came from. It is indeed a recipe for a bleak future that will be stripped of all sincere attempts at creating sustainable societies and functioning economies, or intact environments.
Governments are cementing in what has become the credo of our global economies and ordering local councils like Byron shire to do likewise or otherwise become extinct.
All that governments do is selling off assets, thereby starving the local sphere with many shortages, buying submarines and like toys, thereby depriving education and culture, and subsidising the big polluters who get their privileges handed out like bread rolls.
A ‘Council Improvement Plan’ that includes pay parking, asset realisation and expenditure on roads would be a poor document and witness of the down-spiralling austerity that has besieged our lives.
Pay parking is a farce. Cars need to be kept out of town and stored away in areas outside. Public assets need to stay public and improved to benefit all, not just some.
And yes, residents want good roads but aren’t we talking potholes, not sealing more land with tar? I am stunned by the appalling absence of public transport like commuter train services, especially with increased population. How are we going to get away from our dependency on oil, if oil is the answer to everything and to tight budgets?
We must be aware who drives this kind of economy and why to avert a hot house future that has no spot for any air breathing animals.
I wish council would sit down and work out alternatives of making money and show more inventive drive in being entrepreneurial on a sustainable basis. It’s possible and there are models out there which really are fit for any future.
