The debate over how best to use the disused rail corridor has raged for nearly 20 years and has continued to do so in the pages of The Echo over the last few weeks. Council continues to pass conflicting resolutions about how best to use the corridor and resolve this issue.
This uncertainty is now costing our community valuable local grants that could greatly benefit locals, including kids trying to ride to school. The last Byron Council unanimously supported using the rail corridor through Bangalow for a bike and walking path that would connect Rifle Range Road all the way past the children’s centre, through to the A&I Hall, the public school and the showgrounds. The Bangalow community came up with this project and even managed to get a grant from the state government to get proper designs done.
This grant is now being delayed because the manager of the rail corridor won’t allow any design within three metres of the existing tracks or that goes under the Granuaille Street bridge. The whole point of the project is to go under that bridge and stop kids from having to cross a dangerous road. Council staff have said that Council’s uncertain position on using the rail corridor for a bike and pedestrian path is what has caused this refusal.
It is time for Council to get real about the corridor and support a bike and pedestrian path that can be used by locals and rail trailers alike. It is time to get this project done so it doesn’t cost our community any more than it already has.
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. 
