Woahhh the grinding rubber wheels of progress will once again touch Byron’s potholed roads as councillors and staff meet this Thursday in their never-ending live streamed reality show called ‘local governance’.
Are you new to this? If so, there’s a cast of players who influence your comfortable and quiet Byron lifestyle, whether you know it or not.
They will be debating and voting on significant issues, with a few in particular being…
The Saddle Road and Mullumbimby Road works
As has happened before with this issue, Mayor Sarah Ndiaye is seeking to make sure that senior staff engage with residents around major road works which will disrupt not only 13,000 daily vehicle movements, but the quiet amenity of The Saddle Road residents.
She writes ‘While Council staff have acknowledged a lapse in communication and consultation, this motion seeks to constructively move forward by investigating options for how The Saddle Road can be better managed after the completion of the Mullumbimby Road works’.
‘Specifically, it proposes exploring the feasibility of converting The Saddle Road into two cul-de-sacs, and ultimately repurposing it as a bicycle and pedestrian priority route as part of the future planning for the area’.
In reply, Council staff attempt to explain the two projects ‘which appear to be causing confusion,’ and say any future decision about the use of The Saddle Road as a dedicated bicycle and pedestrian way will be informed by studies and planning work, including community consultation and reference to best practice and other adopted Council plans’.
Unauthorised camping in Brunswick Heads
Former mayor Michael Lyon, has a new motion! The last one he penned was an awful waste of time – he tried to wedge the mayor by saying the deputy mayor needs more pay.
Anyway, this one is an important topic given the problems Bruns residents and business owners are facing with vanpackers.
Cr Lyon’s motion calls for a staff report on ‘The current state of enforcement action on unauthorised camping/parking in Brunswick Heads’. It also asks for, ‘The barriers to effective enforcement, including an update on the signage required in order to enable appropriate enforcement’, and, ‘Whether we have initiated contact with other landowners such as Reflections, Crown Lands, National Parks and Marine Parks in order to obtain delegated authority to enable our rangers to patrol their areas and issue fines’.
Senior staff responded by saying ‘Council’s compliance officers are proactively and regularly patrolling unauthorised camping in Brunswick Heads and issuing penalty infringement notices’.
Keen readers may recall that Bruns residents said the opposite at a recent chamber of commerce meeting.
Anyway, the staff reply continued to say they are ‘adequately resourced to manage Council’s enforcement response’, and they go on to explain they are limited by legislation, regulations and guidelines.
And that dear reader, is where one hopes there are agile minds within the organisation to navigate said obstacles and provide a pathway towards rainbows and unicorns of good governance.
Hans Lovejoy, editor
News tips are welcome: [email protected]
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. 
