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.
Local resident Simon McCarthy made a deputation requesting that Ballina Council create a fully fenced dog park, within the partially fenced run at Compton Park, or at one of the other off-leash dog areas around Ballina, noting that unlike surrounding LGAs, Ballina doesn’t have such a thing, putting dogs at risk and deterring elderly pet owners.
Speaking from a staff perspective, Matthew Wood said it wasn’t Council’s legal requirement to full fence off-leash areas. In response to a question from Cr Simon Kinny, he said that if a dog hurt someone or caused an accident, that would remain the liability of the dog owner.
Cr Kiri Dicker raised the issue of dogs being let off at the top of narrow beach tracks, rather than on beaches themselves (the latest proposal is to start off-leash areas actually on the beach).
Cr Phil Meehan opposed the idea of creating a new, fenced dog park in vacant land at Skennars Head, possibly near the overflow car park for Sharpes Beach, saying ‘establishing a dog park in probably one of the most scenic areas in our shire… doesn’t pass muster for me.’
Councillors voted unanimously for the new Companion Animals Management Plan to go on public exhibition.
Emissions reduction
A motion from Ballina’s new Nationals candidate and Cr Michelle Bailey to weaken the shire’s carbon emissions strategy in favour of ‘flexibility’ met some strong opposition, initially from Graham Shaw of the Ballina Environment Society.
Mr Shaw noted that Ballina’s net emissions were heading in the right direction, and that neighbouring LGAs Byron and Coffs Harbour had added Scope 3 emissions to their calculations, not weakened their targets.
‘The choice today is not between a rigid plan and a flexible one, it is between a flexible plan that has an end point and a flexible plan that does not,’ he said. ‘A target is not paperwork; it is the one commitment resident staff and funders can hold on to.’
Cr Bailey said her motion was about knowing the costs, especially after the special rate variation, and not about opposing climate action. She ended up narrowing her motion to a request for a report.
‘Environmental responsibility, fiscal responsibility… they’re not competing objectives,’ she said.
Staff members noted that what she was requesting would mean extra work and money, and was at odds with what Ballina Council had already agreed to do, and was intending to do in future.
Cr Chate said, ‘We don’t need to throw away the destination just because we might occasionally need to try a different route… if it ain’t broke, let’s not fix it.’
Cr Meehan said a report would just confirm what Ballina Council already knew, that it was on the right path. He also said he’d never support spending ratepayer money on carbon credits.
Cr Dicker said, ‘The best thing we can do is just back away quietly and leave this thing alone,’ warning that the motion would signal Ballina Council isn’t taking climate change seriously in a climate-affected community.
A foreshadowed motion, brought by Cr Dicker with the support of Cr Erin Karsten, to add an additional target for solar energy in Ballina, was disallowed.
Cr Bailey’s original motion also failed to find the necessary support, apart from Crs Simon Kinny and Damian Loone, with Mayor Sharon Cadwallader among those voting against it.
Coverage of the rest of September’s meeting, including the decision to start looking for a new general manager with the imminent departure of Paul Hickey, and the choice of deputy mayor, will be in tomorrow’s Echo.
Cr Therese Crollick was absent from the September meeting.
More stories about Ballina Shire Council:
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'.
Lennox locals and visitors have reacted with dismay to the announcement that Ross Lane will be completely closed from 19 October to 18 December 2026, while the road is upgraded to better deal with future flooding.
Ballina Shire Council says... Ballina Council has moved to draw a clearer distinction between homelessness and anti-social behaviour, declaring that rough sleeping is not an offence as it puts a new homelessness strategy out for public comment. The Ballina Salvage Shed is once again running its Recycled Art Competition, offering a fun and inclusive way for community members to redesign and repurpose materials that may otherwise be sent to landfill or left hidden in a shed.Ballina debates dog parks and net zero
Michelle Bailey targets net zero in Ballina
Ross Lane to be closed for at least two months
Ballina draws line between homelessness and anti-social behaviour
Recycled Art Competition open for entries
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