The Byron Bay community came out in force last Tuesday evening over concerns that the proposed Special Entertainment Precinct (SEP) for Byron will entrench negative outcomes for the town with extended operating hours and liquor licensing for venues.
The meeting room at the Byron Community Centre was filled to capacity with people being turned away.
Lack of community consultation
Concerns were raised about the lack of community consultation, the potential for the SEP to exacerbate existing issues of violence, rape and sexual assault in the town, and the fact that local services such as the police, the Byron hospital emergency department and the NSW Ambulance are already stretched.
For many attendees, who have worked on previous community initiatives like ‘Last Drinks’ that were set up to reduce alcohol-related violence and antisocial behaviour in Byron Bay historically, it felt like ‘Groundhog Day’.
Key questions raised at the meeting were around how much control the community had over what was contained in the SEP, how easily it could be wound back if the community felt it didn’t work and what resources would be provided to Byron Bay in relation to lighting, transport, infrastructure and essential services.
NSW Minister for the Night-time Economy, John Graham, who is also the minister for music and various other portfolios including transport, was in town for the Regional and Remote Music Summit following the meeting, and responded to many of the concerns raised when speaking on Bay FM’s Community Newsroom on Friday.
Not something to impose on communities
Mr Graham told Community Newsroom journalist Mia Armitage that a SEP wasn’t ‘something in any way’ the government wanted ‘to impose on communities’.
‘This is a way of collaborating with communities but if the community is not driving it, then it just won’t work, that’s the starting principle here.’
The minister said the current funding of $162,000 that the Byron Shire Council (BSC) has received wasn’t contingent on the trial going ahead.
He reiterated that should the community decide it didn’t want to proceed with a trial, the government ‘wouldn’t want to press ahead’.
‘Secondly, if it did proceed, we’d go to a trial stage,’ Mr Graham said. ‘If we get to the end of that and it doesn’t work, we don’t want to make it permanent at that stage’.
‘If the council is not on board, if the community is not on board, it’s stopping there.’
Clarify conflicting issues
Bryon Shire Councillor Asren Pugh told the meeting that the process of the SEP would allow the BSC to clarify conflicting issues around opening hours and liquor licensing which are currently set by a range of different licensing bodies.
The 24-Hour Commissioners Office clarified with The Echo that, ‘The SEP precinct management plan will override trading hours on development consents but not liquor licences – those trading hours will still apply.
‘However, live music and performance venues in a SEP can apply to Liquor & Gaming NSW (L&GNSW) for extended liquor trading hours, provided they meet certain conditions. While the Council will set sound conditions for the SEP, any other liquor licence conditions, including those that have been applied due to a venue’s compliance history, will not change. L&GNSW also continues to regulate venue compliance, including noise and disturbance.’
Need to revitalise the town
The Byron Bay Chamber of Commerce President, Matt Williamson, told the meeting that what they are interested in ‘is increasing the vibrancy of the town during the day and into the evening’.
‘We’ve got empty shops and restaurants that are only busy on Friday and Saturday nights and not any other time. We have to look at what we can do with this,’ he told the meeting.
Matt highlighted the current challenges that businesses, and people wanting to put on events, face and said that the SEP was an opportunity to bring vibrancy back into the town centre with less red tape.
Minister Graham agreed when speaking to Bay FM saying, ‘existing regulations and approval time-frames for endeavours such as outdoor dining, live music, later operating hours, liquor licences and micro festivals made the process “too hard” and this is one of the ways we’re trying to make it easier.’
Local businessman, real estate agent and founding member of the Byron Writers Festival, Chris Hanley, who helped organise the meeting, reminded the community that to move forward positively, with or without the SEP, the community needs to come together to determine what is the right way forward for Byron Bay.
‘It is tough running a business in this town at the moment for all businesses,’ he said.
‘We all love this place and it is worth fighting for.’
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