Ballina Shire Council returns to its chambers tomorrow after an extended break. The agenda is even more hectic than usual.
There will be a report on the findings of the recent Finance and Facilities Committee meeting, which resolved to abandon the dream of building medium density community housing in Wollongbar, due to cost, and confirmed the scope of Ballina’s CCTV network upgrade.
In the same meeting, an attempt to sell 26 Endeavor Close Ballina, and compensate the main tenants, the Lismore naval cadets, failed by four votes to six.
Tomorrow, Cr Therese Crollick is bringing a motion to take steps to create a North Coast Convention Centre in Ballina, possibly utilising the current Wigmore Car Park, with an additional car park to be created elsewhere.
Cr Crollick says, ‘Council has spent a significant amount of money over the years upgrading our airport which could have greater use and capacity.
‘Corporate/conference tourism is a significant part of the tourism market and benefits the local economy plus providing an income to Council for the hire of space within a Convention Centre.
‘The Ballina RSL – the go-to venue for events over many years – does not now have the capacity that a centre like Ballina needs to host major events, we previously hosted an LGA conference in conjunction with Lismore,’ said Cr Crollick.
‘We should be able to do that again but simply don’t have the capacity to do so – we do host a number of events but we could bid for and host many more diverse events if we had a state of the art, modern convention facility.’
Food security
In another motion, Cr Erin Karsten is seeking to support protection for high quality agricultural land across the shire, with a view to better complementing the national Food Security Strategy.
Cr Karsten says, ‘While I know the idea of looking at rural land use has been explored in the past, the review of the Food Security Strategy and the global pressures on food systems, as well as the demand for housing and development, I feel, makes this a prescient issue.
‘In particular the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry in looking at food security highlighted that climate change, economic shocks, biosecurity threats, geopolitical factors and supply chain disruptions can all have a significant impact on food security.’
The long-running saga of 23 Compton Drive, East Ballina, currently the site of a ruined restaurant, is likely to be determined tomorrow, with staff recommending that Ballina Council support its demolition and transformation into a large house, as the owner has been requesting for some time.
Ballina’s mayor Sharon Cadwallader will present two mayoral minutes, the first calling for the establishment of a National Coastal Hazards Adaptation Strategy, and the other to investigate paving options to create a space suitable for dancing outside the Wharf Bar and Restaurant.
More stories about Ballina Shire Council:
The agenda for Thursday's meeting includes six notices of motion from four councillors, with issues including missing persons, volunteer recognition, and arts funding. Construction on a $4.35 million flood-resilience upgrade of Ross Lane at Lennox Head is due to begin today, ahead of a nine-week closure of the busy road later this month. With Ballina Shire Council General Manager Paul Hickey deciding to retire after almost twenty years in the role, and even longer as a staff member, the task of finding a replacement has begun. Cr Damien Loone was also returned as Deputy Mayor after Cr Simon Chate withdrew his nomination. September's meeting opened with a minute's silence for much-loved community member and Lennox Head restaurant owner Blake Rogers, who lost his life last week. Fresh from winning pre-selection as the Nationals candidate for the state seat of Ballina, the 'independent' first-term Ballina councillor Michelle Bailey has put forward a notice of motion asking Council to scrap its fixed 2030 net-zero target in favour of what she describes as a 'flexible sustainability strategy'.
Big meeting for Ballina Council this week
Ross Lane flood-resilience works begin ahead of nine-week closure
Ballina Council will be getting a new general manager
Ballina debates dog parks and net zero
Michelle Bailey targets net zero in Ballina
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