Byron Council expresses a commitment to ‘open and transparent’ government in its Community Strategic Plan, but do they mean it?
Council refuses to admit that the procedural fairness and transparency that’s required for a zone change wasn’t followed for Linnaeus. The facts are clear that the community wasn’t informed of the zone change from Education to Mixed Use Development in 2015/16.
This was raised in the recent NRPP hearing. BSC staff responded to a query from the Chair and explained the right process; that councillors determine what goes on exhibition. However, this isn’t what happened for Linnaeus but the NRPP ignored the community concerns and granted an approval for eco-tourism.
In 2020 I made a formal complaint to Council after extensive research. Council responded, but didn’t address the issues, and made it a confidential legal privilege report that I can’t even share with a lawyer. So where’s the open and transparent processes, that Council states as a core principle of good governance?
If I’m wrong, why aren’t they willing to prove it publicly? The only option I have now is to take it to ICAC to seek review of why our Council and NRPP disregard procedural fairness in the planning process and grant benefit to landowners.