It is my understanding that an elderly person named Feros, noting that there was not an aged care facility in Byron some 50 plus years ago, walked the streets of Byron with a bell and a tin can collecting money for an aged care facility.
His persistence paid off. And without knowing too much about the land tenure on which the current village is built I am assuming that the land was gifted by local or state government for the purpose of housing a retirement facility?
A long-term friend of mine, architect Christine Vadasz, was commissioned to design Feros Village in the ’70s. An elderly environmentalist friend has lived in Feros for some ten years and I was able to witness the design and functionality of this place that my friend, and his parents before him, had called home.
While my mother was looking for a care place some years ago I had the chance to review care places in Byron, Canberra and the Tweed and was impressed with Feros in terms of layout and functionality. As a landscape architect Christine Vadasz seemed to have captured the essence of living in, and with, nature.
As the land on which Feros is built was gifted for a specific purpose I would have thought that a change of purpose, in town planning terms, would have required considerable consultation with local and state government, as well as with the residents of the facility as it is.
Adding to my difficulty in understanding is the haste with which the Feros board has taken the decision to vacate the site and rebuild another facility – there appears to be little explanation for destroying what is existing.
Little explanation has been given as to why the existing facility does not meet current standards for care. What are the current standards and what other options are there? It seems from the outside that the board is justifying their lack of management of the facility to take some other course of convenience.
Maybe the present board could be dismissed and another board be chosen who might adequately interface between the residents’ needs and the required care standards?
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. 
