So Cr Michael Lyon (Facebook, 17 September) has indicated that he no longer supports housing development for the 57 Station Street car park and is now of the view that the site further down the street alongside Woolworths is a more appropriate location for the proposal and would have greater community acceptance.
Well, I certainly agree with Cr Lyon on that score. A bit of a walk to town, but hey, aren’t we bombarded every day with the idea that walking is good for us? And, next door to a supermarket, wow! If driving is a necessity our public car park just up the road will still be there.
Yes, a good site for relocation of a housing development that has caused much angst within the Mullumbimby community, and has absorbed the time and energy of many hardworking community-minded people who are concerned with preserving Mullum’s heritage, maintaining the ambience of the entrance to our town centre, allowing businesses to continue in the vicinity without being disadvantaged, and preserving car parking and a much-loved public toilet.
However, despite my willingness to accept Cr Lyon’s about-face I have an uneasy feeling that there might be more to it than meets the eye.
I’m afraid I lost faith in Cr Lyon being motivated by community interest when the 57 Station Street car park site was reportedly sold for development and for the paltry sum of $1. My concern now has been prompted by the diagram of the relocated housing site that Mr Lyon has attached to his Facebook entry.
The diagram shows the large rectangular area bounding Station Street, Woolworths, and the railway and includes a tail that extends towards the river between the units of the industrial estate and the railway into a very large area bounded by a loop in the river extending from the railway bridge to the industrial estate. I presume that this very large area with river frontage is Council land as there is a notice to this effect near the entrance to the area.
I am well acquainted with this piece of land because I have observed it during my regular walks around Mullum over the past ten years. It is an area, that if developed for housing would undoubtedly be for river-fronted residences like those alongside the river in Mill Street, residences way out of the league of affordable housing. A site that I would imagine would have any developer salivating.
Why do I have concerns about this area? Well, a few weeks ago, the roads within the area have been cleared, the couple of itinerant residents living there have departed, and now I see Cr Lyon’s diagram of the housing site he now supports and I have to ask, are there some development aspirations in the wind in relation to this prime river site? It would be very disappointing if this beautiful piece of riverside land became another housing estate. It would make a wonderful recreational parkland for the residents and visitors to Mullumbimby and could be an extension of the popular Heritage Park.
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. 
