After attending Tuesday night’s information session and reading the handouts, my initial gut feeling has been confirmed – the Special Entertainment Precinct is really about ‘revitalising’ Byron’s night-time economy, i.e. making Byron more of a party town than it already is! This will be done by helping businesses make more money via longer trading hours for licensed venues, allowing drinking while standing outdoors, encouraging more live music (read amplified) and raising the number of noise complaints from three to five before a formal complaint can be made.
I’m unclear how day-time businesses can be helped by all this. Rents are still exorbitant and only big chains can afford them. Most of the quirky shops which made Byron so interesting are long gone, as have many of the shops needed day-to-day by residents.
The SEP handout gives a wonderful list of possibilities for celebrating ‘culture, creativity and connection’ but where will the money come from? Chris Minns’ $162,500 will be spent on consultants and presumably extra hours spent on all this by Council staff.
I can only assume none of our councillors live in Byron, otherwise they wouldn’t have been interested in promoting the SEP.
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. 
