All hail the megadevelopment

Maxime Deffet, Byron Bay

Following the West Byron community meeting held on Sunday 17 I would like to remind all the members of the state government who have been approving this development that the Byron community will not let this happen without a fight.

I’m asking the state government for an open answer explaining clearly their process of approval for such a massive project as well as a transparent justification about the approval of land rezoning.

More than anything, this has the sound of a friend-to-friend agreement without any regard to the community and its environment.

The Belongil Creek seems to have been ignored. Where clean water should enhance this ecosystem; what is left to us is a reserve I would not want to walk through owingto the poor condition it is in. I wouldn’t recommend anyone to swim in it; it is so polluted.

With a community that has such a strong environmental value, I’m surprised local government do not put in additional effort to protect the natural diversity of that area.

Having been personally involved in the community panel concerning the Shire’s prioritisation of infrastructures and its funding, I know that the local government is doing its best with what it has. For that reason I’m pointing my finger to the state government and asking for clear and transparent explanations.

I want answers before being presented with a done deal, which would put significant additional costs on the community (water treatment, depollution, new water drainage and so on).

I would like to understand through which process the decision has been made to potentially increase the population of Byron to roughly 75 per cent (from around 3,000 houses to 5,000) and increase the amount of traffic to more than 10,000 car trips daily.

What kind of justification can the state government put on the table to explain why Byron should increase so significantly when we know that the size of the town is limited owing to its own landscape?