Proposing another Special Rate Variation (SRV) during a financial, and affordable housing, crisis portrays a local council willing to cause further financial distress to ordinary ratepayers, renters, and small business owners who rely on residents having a disposable income.
Past SRVs, selling community assets, and Council’s 2016, ‘Fit For Future Plan’ has not fixed our basic infrastructure requirements, nor prevented Council from once again, returning to financial hardship.
Attempts to increase the rate base with condensed housing developments has only increased Council’s infrastructure costs, flood-risk costs, and placed unsustainable pressure on our fragile natural environment.
Jan Barham’s article and multiple letters printed in The Echo have accurately presented the sentiments and questions of many residents across Byron Shire.
I respectfully add that the proposed SRV is not required to meet residents’ expectation that ‘our Council treat all residents equally, with transparency, integrity, and with an ethical responsibility’.
H Rowland, Ocean Shores
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. 
