Losing one’s home would perhaps the worst potential event for any individual or family, apart from inevitable death.
So you would think those in Byron Council with powers to enforce such drastic measures would be mindful, and have humane policies in place to deal with it.
But as locals know, they don’t appear to, and don’t seem to care.
Threats such as those outlined in our earlier story, Demolition Threats, come around every few years, and successive (Green?) mayors have been incapable – or unwilling – to guide Council staff around community expectations and basic human responses.
Do surrounding shire councils treat their ratepayers so harshly?
No, they don’t.
While the entire north coast is rife with unapproved dwellings, it seems only Byron Council treats its ratepayers like this.
It’s behaviour that also humiliates the mayor and councillors, as they are supposed to represent our collective interests. Are they concerned with this behaviour?
A short, potted history
Let’s recap the last few years briefly.
During Covid in 2020, Council staff sent out ‘robo-letters’ to Main Arm property owners, accusing them of having unauthorised development on their land while there was both a moratorium in place, and an unauthorised dwelling policy currently on public exhibition.
Hilarious!
Was that moratorium effective?
Then in 2021, The Echo reported that Cr Sarah Ndiaye drafted a motion on-the-fly to develop a Draft Unauthorised Dwelling Policy, by tacking it onto a development application for a property in Skinners Shoot.
The Echo reported at the time, ‘Her motion led to an attack on property owners in Upper Main Arm by Council’s compliance staff. Before the policy went on exhibition for public feedback, compliance staff took it upon themselves to target their first area of alleged unauthorised dwellings – Upper Main Arm’.
The Draft Unauthorised Dwelling Policy was later shelved for staff’s ‘internal use’, with Cr Ndiaye saying, ‘I apologise that it was misinterpreted by staff.’
But incompetency isn’t just limited to lashing out at unsuspecting ratepayers – in 2023, Council staff were involved in the dumping of 150 tonnes of fill, or 12 truckloads, on Marshalls Creek in The Pocket from infrastructure jobs.
There were no consequences, and the matter magically disappeared after then-mayor, Michael Lyon, had councillor support to simply ‘note’ the indiscretion. So laws don’t apply to Council.
Nice work!
From here, this is an opportunity for the new mayor to demonstrate her pre-election rhetoric and provide the leadership that has been missing since former mayors Richardson and Lyon were in office.
Councillors should be given staff reports in meeting agendas around current compliance actions.
Residents can, and should, contact councillors/the mayor if they feel they are being unfairly treated by compliance officers.
Many don’t, of course, owing to fear – this needs to change.
Improving Council’s reputation should be the focus of councillors, yet it’s not easy.
For decades, it has been continually trashed by executive staff who don’t even live in the Shire.
Hans Lovejoy, editor
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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. 
