A ‘born and bred local’, the only ungrouped candidate for the 2024 Byron Shire Council election starts by way of introduction.
Lucy Vader says she’s a true independent candidate living in Mullumbimby with no party affiliations.
‘My only interests are that of the Byron Shire,’ her media release reads.
Ms Vader says she’s familiar with and admires ‘quite a few’ of the other candidates but emphasises the importance of voting for individuals below the line.
‘Some of you may know me through my art, or from the ’22 floods, saved by the mystery kayaker,’ Ms Vader writes, ‘however, there is more to me than that’.
Disaster resilience, pod ‘pimping’, Mullum water re-vote and refuge centres
With more than 20 years’ experience in building design and working alongside associated disciplines, Ms Vader says her experience could help create better outcomes for towns, villages, people, the region and the environment.
Her campaign release includes 22 points she says show her ‘passion for maintaining community bonds’.
The points are detailed over four pages and include the following outtakes:
- Flood mitigation. Ms Vader says she wants to keep development off floodplains; create roads and infrastructure in locations that ‘make sense and don’t harm lives or habitat’.
- Maintenance of town, village, and hamlet character, and maintained ‘aspect views to our hinterland and items of geographic significance’.
- Potholes! Ms Vader says she wants to ‘get to the bottom of potholes once and for all’ with a review of Byron’s maintenance section ‘such that we are no longer the pothole capital’.
- Faster Byron Shire development application processing times. Ms Vader says she has a proposal to ‘streamline the efficiency of DA processing’.
- Resilience: Ms Vader says river height data gauges need updating and has listed several other disaster resilience measures she’d like to see in the shire, including emergency evacuation plans and more use of local knowledge on wetlands as well as more water security measures such as greywater systems, tanks and recycled water.
- Consultants… ‘if it’s not broken, it doesn’t need fixing (or upgrading)’, says Ms Vader, before adding, ‘if it really needs a consultant, use a local consultant’.
- Laverty’s Gap water connection to Mullumbimby. Ms Vader says she is ‘not against a rescission motion’ on the controversial matter voted on at the last ordinary council meeting before entering caretaker mode.
- The ungrouped candidate says she wants to make sure rate payers’ money is not being spent ‘in spurious areas, such as on community feedback questionnaires whose majority responses get ignored, or on project initiatives that are really not required’.
- Mullumbimby’s temporary emergency housing pod village. Ms Vader would like to have local groups and or residents suggest creative and innovative ways of what she describes as ‘pimping the pods’, a reference to improving the village’s aesthetics. She is also calling for the site’s fill to be removed when the pods are eventually reloacted.
- Managing a ‘harmonious confluence of agriculture, tourism, small business, industry,environmental management, residential development, and the componentry that ties it ideally together successfully.
- Paid parking. Ms Vader says she is ‘on the fence’.
- Village hearts: Ms Vader has expressed concern about increased proposed building heights in Mullumbimby (so far, the mayor says these are to be restricted to the former Mullumbimby hospital site, if the state planning department approves a rezozing there). She has also expressed concern for local businesses across the shire but has named Bangalow as an example of a place with issues such as having car spaces removed from the streets or nearby car parks and development applications taking ‘too long for seemingly simple design modifications’.
- Harness the wisdom and knowledge of our locals and neighbours.
- Look at knowledge and equipment sharing between shires.
- Address areas of cultural division in our community.
- Bicycle pathways. ‘I basically support a rail trail, I basically support a train if there was lots and lots and lots of money for it, and I support both in a perfect world,’ says Ms Vader.
- Ms Vader says she would be glad to offer design concepts as alternatives to high density development.
- The creation of women’s and a men’s refuge centre.
- Continue the path towards the option for natural burials locations.
- Resuscitate local music festivals. ‘Multiple music festivals could fill the crater left behind by the departure of the Blues Fest,’ says Ms Vader.
- Continue and enhance support to the arts precincts and initiatives.
- Support groups who empower the disadvantaged.
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