Tom Tabart, Bangalow.
The Byron council agenda for April 20 contains several motions from councillors which are intended to change or amend recommendations of previous or current staff reports.
The staff involved are required to comment on the councillors’ motions and have invariably sought to oppose the councillor and reassert their original report.
This would be understandable if the staff reports were complete, coherent and logical; unfortunately this is not the case and it could be thought that either incompetence or bureaucratic solidarity with other government entities may play part in their presentation.
The long running saga of the Brunswick Heads caravan parks is one example where the council planning director has sided with the NSW Holiday Parks NGO which has been seeking to annex our public land over many years.
The same council bureaucrat has reasserted a garbled defence of the latest plan to redevelop the Tyagarah airstrip complex. This plan, which lacks any financial projections (among other deficiencies), revolves around someone’s desire to develop a heliport (fully serviced air terminal) which was a mysterious upgrade from a helipad (marked landing place) in the original version that went to council.
These are only two space-incomplete examples which raise questions about the council executive.
How the councillors vote on these motions will be very instructive as to their closeness to, and confidence in, the GM’s staff.
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. 
