Much has been written recently and disproportionately in The Echo concerning the issue of traffic lights in Suffolk Park after a majority of Byron Shire councillors voted to accept the government funding grant to construct them.
Enraged by the decision, some residents are convinced that these first traffic lights set a precedent that will lead to the rest of the town being lit up like a Christmas tree, damaging the unique character and beauty of ‘The Bay’.
It is easy to be sympathetic with this perspective, but it simply does not follow that lights at the Clifford Street, Broken Head intersection will establish a precedent leading to the adoption of a future route strategy foreshadowed in Byron Shire Council’s Safe System Assessment report.
This was made very clear by councillors in discussion during the late November meeting, and the amended motion concerning any future traffic light options. At other bad intersections where safety concerns necessitate treatment, there are viable alternatives.
Effectively, lights represent a one-off interim solution for the Clifford Street, Broken Head Road intersection which has historic and unique problems and characteristics.
Can anyone think of another intersection in Byron Shire, indeed, anywhere else, that carries the load expected of it?
For those unfamiliar with this intersection, consider this: it abuts a busy shopping centre. There is a pub on the corner with an entry driveway at a minimum distance away. A bus stop is close by with no crossing. An expanding child care centre, with a capacity of 80 children, will reopen this year 100 metres down on Clifford Street. Tallow Beach, a major drawcard, is accessed from here. A fire truck station adjacent to this beach is on stand-by.
All traffic movements, including public and school buses, vans, garbage trucks, delivery vans and cars towing caravans, take place on this single road.
It is important to be aware too that Clifford Street is the only way out in an emergency context such as a bushfire or major flood event.
Additionally the RSL Residential Care complex for 66 seniors, and a bus stop for children commuting to school are close by on Broken Head Road. Pedestrian crossing infrastructure is very limited and dangerous. In the meantime, traffic forecasts from the south outside the shire are projected to get much heavier.
Affected residents compelled to navigate this congested dangerous intersection during peak periods on a daily basis have had enough. In a public meeting of 50 residents, organised in November and attended by Deputy Mayor Jack Dods, over 90 per cent supported the lights.
A survey of 180 residents in the community in the following week, confirmed this decision. They CANNOT wait for an elusive roundabout to appear in the distant future.
A roundabout would have to be large to accommodate both the volume and type of vehicles using this intersection, would entail buying expensive land from three landowners and the removal of valuable trees, would have to fund the cost of changing an underground Telstra cable, would have to be paid for by ratepayers and would have to find a solution for a fundamental inescapable problem… how are vehicles to travel along Broken Head Road and gain access to beachside Suffolk during the many months taken to construct a roundabout?
We’ve been through this circus before and failed. It’s time to act now in view of the facts, not the campaign of misinformation, accusation, omission and sloganeering evident in some letters and articles in The Echo.
People have the choice of accepting the alternative solution, lights that can be programmed, or doing nothing while internal pressures within beachside Suffolk Park continue to build, alongside the traffic bourgeoning from the south. A tragic accident here is a question of when, not if, without urgent intervention.
The new Council faced an intractable problem. They arrived at a decision that was fair as well as fiscally and socially responsible. They are to be congratulated. ONE set of traffic lights is not going to shift the world on its axis.
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. 
