Oliver Dunne, Byron Bay
Looks like Godot turned up and the waiting for the Byron bypass has ended.
Cr Staples, your council failed to identify a second crossing after years going around in circles and spending a fortune on consultants. The mini-bypass idea didn’t work without destroying the whole Railway Park historic precinct and only moved the traffic jam 150 metres.
When the rail-line option was raised by the Butler Street residents I supported this option. But once again it couldn’t gain traction.
Anywhere else other than the Byron Bubble, this second crossing would have been completed by 2005. By rights, this week Council should have been letting a tender for its extension of Butler Street along the rail corridor to Cemetery Road and on to the golf course intersection south of the high school. It is beyond time for this to occur – go stand any morning at Clifford Street, Suffolk Park, or the High School to know this.
If you live at Ocean Shores or Lilli Pilli, don’t go bagging Council for having to use a small amount of wetlands to complete a road. Huge amounts of wetlands were filled there.
It is no mystery why this breakdown has occurred between the senior and junior Greens. Clearly a generational change has taken place that leaves the old Greens effectively sidelined. People need to get to school, sport, or doctors etc, not sit in interminable traffic jams. Practicality tells current Greens that a second crossing is 40 years overdue.
One day the Byron Greens will look back and wonder why they tore themselves apart over a project as slight as a mere second rail crossing. If they continue in this vein, they will quickly lose their majority on Council and face wipeout at next September’s election. That’s food for thought down there at Broken Head Greens Central HQ.
