The last time rates rose was when it was deemed that Byron’s roads must be upgraded to support the Economic/Tourist/Investor vision. This great ‘spin’ was created to justify a ‘Fit for the Future’ model. Now it is mooted that rates will rise 17 per cent to address ‘waste’. Not homelessness, but waste.
Waste of money occurred when the silver art feature the Disco Dong heralded the entry to the Industrial site. The money wasted on this removed feature could have contributed to a housing project, given that outside Sydney, pre-floods, Byron had the highest homelessness statistic.
Much community effort and money was spent in attempting to campaign for the integrity of saving West Byron. This proposed development will go ahead on a flood plain. No waste of money there! Potential flood homelessness? Who cares? Across the road from West Byron is the Industrial Estate. They uphold a ‘Progress model’ – a carnival feature that must be incorporated into a tourism package fit for the future. Do visit, you will love it.
Already you can play dodgem cars as you avoid the great craters in the Industrial Estate roads. The little grandkids love it as they suck on their sticky toffee ‘all day suckers’ and scream with delight: ‘Go Faster Nana, we love it when the car does big shakes, go faster in the big hole Nan’.
The ongoing carnival will be really enhanced when the Bio-Energy delivery trucks arrive. They have groaned through the bumper-to-bumper traffic on Ewingsdale Road. The stink of methane is putrid but the residents are a creative community and the ongoing carnival is enhanced by the wearing of Joker full face masks. Indeed, colourful clowns are cart-wheeling and jumping and leaping around the cars. Talk about fun. The carnival never ends.
Even when the puppeteers from Council arrive with their crates of spin and string. They created this heavenly carnival and have no joy in their souls. Their mouths seem like bent down wire coat hangers. They can’t stop the carnival coz it is a real tourist attraction, a real money spinner. Even the police are warned away as the homeless sleep calmly with their Joker masks on.
Who would have thought that an authoritarian development model could be such fun?
For four decades The Echo has printed the stories some people loved, some people hated, and some pretended not to read. If you want us to keep telling the truth, the real truth, not the sugar-coated version. We’ll need your support to keep the presses rolling. 
