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Byron Shire
April 24, 2024

Independent Michael Lyon declared winner of Byron Mayoral race

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Independent Michael Lyon has been elected Mayor of Byron, promising a concerted effort to solve the Shire’s housing crisis.

Cr Lyon continues in the role that he held for the last seven months of the last Council term following the resignation of Greens Mayor, Simon Richardson.

Byron Mayor Michael Lyon with his team: L-R – Sama Balson, Peter Westheimer and Jeannette Martin. Photo supplied

The result was declared at 10am this morning at an official ‘calling of the card’ process conducted by the NSW Electoral Commission at the Mullumbimby Civic Hall.

The process involved the live allocation of preferences (which had been counted and entered into the system over the past week) by the Commission’s computer.

The final result saw Cr Lyon edge out fellow independent Mark Swivel, who was second in the race.

Third was Duncan Dey of The Greens, followed by independent Cate Coorey.

Cr Lyon was congratulated by Mr Dey and Mr Swivel after the result was declared, as well as Sarah Ndiaye of The Greens, who looks very likely to retain her seat on Council.

When asked what locals could expect from him over the upcoming two-and-a-half year term, Cr Lyon told The Echo:

‘You can expect a focus on core services and the business of Council.

‘You can expect our unmitigated and concerted effort to solve the housing crisis on behalf of all the vulnerable people in our community doing it tough.

‘You can expect an inclusive and open minded approach to all issues and all conversations, and ensuring that all voices in our community are heard and understood before any decisions are made.’

The make-up of the rest of Byron Council will be announced on Wednesday at 9.45am.

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2 COMMENTS

  1. Lyons “‘You can expect an inclusive and open minded approach to all issues and all conversations, and ensuring that all voices in our community are heard and understood before any decisions are made.”

    Saturday, 23 October 2021, 14:44:15 GMT+11
    My Email to Council :Subject: Report No. 16.2 Byron Shire Bioenergy Facility – Project Update
    Dear General Manager Mark Arnold and Councillors
    General Manager – Questions:
    1) How much did Council pay for Council staff to travel around the world to examine similar methane burning plants?
    2) Is the costs of that staff international travel included in the projects budget costs to date, or if not which Budget did those costs come from?

    On 1 Nov 2021, at 4:14 pm, Clark, Cameron wrote: The costs were approximately $30,000.00 and the trip was deemed successful in undertaking detailed due diligence for a potential $20Million Council investment.

    On Monday, 1 November 2021, 22:14:33 GMT+11, Cr Michael Lyon wrote:
    Thanks Cameron, that’s good information, however I think we need to drill down a bit into this. How many in-flight drinks were ordered by staff on their flight out of Australia, and did they have crackers and cheese or just the complimentary nuts?
    Cr Michael Lyon | Mayor | BYRON SHIRE COUNCIL

    “an inclusive and open minded approach to all issues and all conversations,”????

    And yes, Council does not work on budget spend “Approximates” , and “approximately” $1,270,000 spent on prior assessment!!??
    And the proposed plant appears to produce a similar amount of greenhouse gas emissions from its Methane burning furnace as from composting, with “emission reductions” purely book allocated by it gaining salable Carbon Credits that will be bought to offset others emissions, under the Federal Govt creative bookkeeping that allots Carbon Credits to burning waste, despite no actual emission reductions from the process’s (the Condong sugar plant is another example – burns “waste” forest wood and sugar cane with high carbon emissions, but gains salable carbon credits that are purchased to offset others emissions, despite the carbon credits being based on increased emissions).

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