Patrick Morrisey, Goonengerry
Great letters and advocacy from Ron Priestly challenging Byron Council on its pathetic position that equates to wilful negligence. They stubbornly refuse to explore solutions to one of our hinterland’s most perennial environmental problems, alas perpetuated by Council engineers, that is, trying to prevent polluting our creeks, streams and rivers with quarried gravel material by budgeting to seal gravel roads in the highest rainfall and biodiverse region of NSW.
Perhaps taking Class Action against Council may be the only way to focus Council (engineers).
Council (engineers) in leadership positions are obliged to think outside the box given to them by the NSW Government (RMS) given the unique set of circumstances in the northern rivers – extreme rainfall, steep gradients, gravel roads.
Didn’t Lismore recently experience catastrophic floods causing millions of dollars in damage? Doesn’t water from a third of Byron Shire land flow through the City of Lismore? Aren’t gravel roads upstream of Lismore contributing to flooding?
Are any councillors on the northern rivers putting two and two together and trying to prevent further filling up of our rivers with quarried gravel material that is contributing to further flooding? Not to mention a waste of gravel and rate dollars.
And yes I do have a material interest. I have one of only a handful of properties in Byron Shire with a Conservation Agreement on title with the NSW Government requiring me by law (National Parks and Wildlife Act) to prevent the degradation of an endangered ecological community and threatened species. And it’s on a gravel road that has been funnelling tonnes and tonnes of gravel into this Conservation Area courtesy of Byron Council for many years and out the other side and onto Lismore and beyond. And only Council can control this environmental pollution.
