Oh, Sharon (Echo Letters, 6 March). As you know, we live in a democracy; our model is good, but not perfect.
As a young Professional Engineer I worked for the state government and was involved in ‘flooding six houses’. The owners could not get to talk to me – or get a satisfactory answer from their state MP.
Local government is not perfect – particularly in a non-viable council like Byron Shire. But local government is the best form of democracy in Australia. If you can’t get to talk to people in Council, go to the Ombudsman.
Most stormwater, drainage, and sewerage issues are local council responsibilities and problems – directly – not state government problems.
I could go on, but most of us know that Byron Shire Council has been ignoring technical recommendations for decades – just ask Alan Dickens.
If councillors don’t represent ‘you’, vote ‘em out – democracy at work.
Most importantly, don’t ‘go silent’.
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. 
