I have lived in east Suffolk Park for 52 years, as you can imagine I have seen some remarkable changes. The most spectacular was Papa Bears Night Club on the corner of Bangalow Road and Clifford Street, complete with spinning disco ball.
No supermarket or bakery in those days, not even in Byron Bay – we had to go to Ballina or Lismore. After many changes on the corner the building was taken over by Ron Barnes and Vince Farrell; they created the Suffolk Park Hotel. The Farrell family has made it what it is today.
The next step was the shopping centre with a shared car park in between. On the opposite corner there were two empty blocks, already there were traffic problems, so a suggestion was made at a public meeting at the hotel that the Council buy these blocks so that the only opening to Suffolk Park could be expanded to give a better entrance/exit and space for the new bus service.
James Barnes put up several thousand dollars for an architectural transport study, which was completed and submitted to Council.
So what happened? Nothing. It was our only opportunity to expand the entrance/exit before the blocks were sold. There would have been enough room for a small roundabout plus a widening of the road from the south.
Now we have a new development to give the people of Suffolk Park a bigger shopping centre complex, which will certainly attract more cars, but isn’t it about time we deserve a little more consideration?
Unfortunately, the traffic problem will get worse, but the shopping centre will be wonderful for the area.
As for the endangered species, there are very few gum trees on this site for koalas and as for the black cockatoos, they like banksia’s etc. I did not see any of these on this site, mainly Cyprus pines and tuckeroo.
Our park has recently been upgraded, but the roads are particularly bad, we have very few storm water drains and little-to-no curb and guttering as this subdivision was set out in the 1940s. Some roads have not been touched since then. We are well overdue for attention in east Suffolk Park.
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. 
