Last week’s article about the Special Entertainment Precinct (SEP) refers to being positive, but doesn’t explain the opportunities or the risks. It doesn’t mention the safety and branding risks from extended alcohol trading (see Rory O’Halloran’s letter), that justify concerns being raised.
Currently, there’s a lack of a clear framework to manage our iconic tourism town, there isn’t a current tourism/destination plan to define and manage what we value and who we aim to attract.
There’s no asset management plan to ensure maintenance and upgrades, as the 2016 Byron Masterplan defined as an urgent priority.
There’s no cultural or events plan to establish a vibrancy program and Byron Council no longer has a community safety program, or includes a solution to the transport gaps, especially for young people.
Why haven’t we been told how the SEP could deliver these outcomes and the funding required to implement them. Are these the positives?
Council’s website, consultations and positioning papers haven’t provided information that answer genuine concerns, or why the SEP has taken precedence over the delivery of a sensible framework to address the obvious issues of an iconic tourism town that’s struggling and in need of attention.
We’re told there’s constraints to delivering cultural vibrancy currently, but these haven’t been explained to consider solutions.
Instead we hear the ‘red tape’ mantra and a solution in the guise of a process that poses risks.
My view is a back-to-basics approach; deliver on obvious needs and then perhaps consider if an SEP is an option we want to explore once we are well informed and prepared.
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. 
