Byron Council is trying to use state government, Sydney-centric planning policies to fundamentally change our home.
In Byron, it is blazing a trail as the first council outside of Sydney to establish a ‘Special Entertainment Precinct’. Council has tried to sell the concept as addressing challenges to businesses caused by Covid, floods, cyclones, etc. At Tuesday’s community info session, Council staff acknowledged the SEP would do nothing to mitigate those impacts. It is about allowing venues to open later and have reduced noise restrictions, as the state government clearly says on its website.
In Mullumbimby, it is blazing a trail to use state planning laws to override Local Environmental Plans and development controls to build an 11.7-metre high, 32-unit development (most of which will not have car parks) on Council-owned land at 57 Station St. It’s a big building on a small, constrained site. Better sites are available, or a design better suited to the site and town should be adopted. We certainly need more affordable homes. We don’t need an inner city Sydney scale building without car parks. The good people of Surry Hills might be able to access good public transport but options are far more restricted here.
Mullum or Byron this time, Bruns or Bangalow next. In both cases, Council seems to be relying on state government planning tools to override their own development controls. Community consultation, to the extent it happens, seems to be about ‘managing the noise’ rather than genuinely engaging with community.
We need locally appropriate solutions rather than solutions better suited to large urban centres. Why does our Council seem to see it differently?
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. 
