As the news of who and who isn’t running for Mayor of Lismore was finalised yesterday, the candidates are going to the ballot today (which was delayed by over three hours) to see what order they will appear on the voting form.
Cr Bird drew number 6 of 6.
Our Sustainable Future, led by current Councillor Elly Bird and her team have officially launched their campaign for Lismore City Council.
Councillor Bird is running for Mayor of Lismore City Council with what she says is a strong team of long term locals, business owners and environmental advocates on her ticket.
The Our Sustainable Future team
The candidates on the Our Sustainable Future ticket are Carlos Vieira-Silva and Deborah Ray, who are both business owners in the Lismore CBD, Jyllie Jackson the driving force behind the Lismore Lantern Parade, and Simon Clough previous Deputy Mayor and long-term community campaigner.
Cr Bird says that as Mayor she would lead the community to face challenges head-on, focusing on working together with councillors, staff and our community, to find practical, positive and sustainable solutions.
Climate resilience and disaster preparedness a priority
‘Our priority focus for the next term of Council and beyond is climate resilience and disaster preparedness; affordable housing; financial sustainability for the organisation; and prioritising roads, infrastructure maintenance and efficient waste management into the future. We are totally committed to sustainable economic development and supporting our business community to grow and to establish new initiatives that will enhance and improve our unique community identity.’
Cr Bird says her team’s position on key policy areas of interest to our community is that they oppose the Dunoon Dam and support resilient system-wide water efficiencies and solutions like purified recycled water. ‘We will also prioritise CBD revitalisation and business recovery from Covid; we support development on North Lismore Plateau which has been a long term strategic goal for Council for many years, and which has been through a detailed and thorough consultation process with Traditional Custodians; and we support the Rail Trail because of the economic benefits it will bring to Lismore.’
An active and responsive Councillor
Cr Bird says that she was elected in 2016 after five years working on the successful campaign to make the Northern Rivers Gasfield Free. ‘Since then I’ve proven that I am an active and responsive Councillor – I led our flood recovery with Lismore Helping Hands, supported our community through the bushfires, and I have consistently advocated for local businesses. I am experienced, diligent and committed. I show up, I work hard, and I listen.
Cr Bird feels she has the right balance of experience and passion required to lead a new Council with many new faces following the upcoming election. ‘I have the skills, the dedication and the commitment to be the next Mayor of Lismore and I am looking forward to working in partnership with our community to build a future we can all be proud of.’
Cr Bird announced Gwen Trimble who is a long term resident of Nimbin as number two on the ticket. ‘We are working hard to have Gwen elected to Council alongside me as a sorely needed Nimbin representative. As our largest village and our most significant tourist destination, Nimbin needs dedicated representation on Council.’
Neil Marks to retire from Council
Last night Cr Neil Marks surprisingly announced that not only will he not be running for Mayor at the Lismore election, he will also not be running for Council. ‘
‘It’s a shame that Neil Marks is retiring from Council at this election,’ said Cr Bird. ‘He has been a very diligent and dedicated councillor who has served our community well for 13 years and I wish him well.’
Cr Bird’s 20 Questions for The Echo are here.
Recent stories, information and updates regarding the Lismore Elections
Controversial founder and director of the pro-euthanasia group Exit International, Dr Philip Nitschke will hold a free public meeting on NSW’s new Voluntary Assisted Dying Act at the Lismore Workers Club on Saturday. Sophia Watt was named Lismore City Council’s 2023 Citizen of the Year at an awards ceremony held at the Goonellabah Sports & Aquatic Centre yesterday. The final stage of the Lismore Base Hospital redevelopment is now complete, says the NSW Liberals and Nationals government. Flood-impacted residents from the Northern Rivers are being called to join forces in Lismore at 10am on Monday, 23 January to demand transparency and socially just development interventions from the Northern Rivers Reconstruction Corporation. On Thursday 15 December, it took the four panellists on the Northern Regional Planning Panel less than half an hour, to unanimously decline the Development Application for the northern section of the North Lismore Plateau also known as The Sleeping Lizard. With the new year came the news that the Koori Kitchen in Lismore would not be reopening and that the facility would be packed down – Council wants their parking spaces back. Lismore has had a record number of nominations for the awards presented on Australia Day.
Fifty-four community members have been nominated across seven categories: Citizen of the Year, Aboriginal Citizen of the Year, Young Citizen of the Year, senior and... Lismore City Council has provided 1,000 extra ‘free waste vouchers’ to help residents dispose of excess waste generated over the Christmas and New Year period. Temporary ‘work zone’ signage will be progressively removed from the Lismore CBD from early January. The NSW Government has announced the creation of a local planning panel for Lismore. The panel will be made up of independent experts and community representatives to determine contentious and complex development applications and provide advice on other planning matters.
Dr Philip Nitschke to visit Lismore
Lismore City Council’s awards ceremony
Lismore hospital works completed
NRRC – Lismore rally to demand transparency and accountability for flood...
North Lismore Plateau’s ‘Sleeping Lizard’ DA refused but what’s the future?
Council closes Koori Kitchen for car parks
Record number of Lismore Australia Day nominations
Free extra waste vouchers for Lismore and Nimbin
Post-flood work zones to be removed from Lismore CBD
Have your say on the Lismore Planning Panel
How can you support the proposed 2000 lot development with a population increase of 6 to 8 thousand
without having a new dam at Dunoon.
How can you say you want to improve roads when the NLP development proposes to put an estimated
14,000 car movements a DAY on our roads.
How can you promote fiscal responsibility when Council is borrowing 30 million dollars for supporting
infrastructure for the NLP developers who are standing to make hundreds of millions of dollars of profit?
How can you have a policy for social housing when no provision at all is being made in any development including,
and especially the NLP, the single biggest development ever before Council.
Our Sustainable Future is a fancy name but the reality is naivety or worse electoral deception on a grand scale
on a Community who are just fed up with the shenanigans of the Lismore City Council.
Al you didn’t mention: how do you “take strong action on climate change” while continuing the conversion of Nimbin from highly productive farmland to lantana and marijuana-based tourism attracting people from the other side of the world travelling on jets?