The Independent Planning Commission (IPC) has rejected Verdant Earth Technologies’ biomass power plans at Redbank Power Station on the same day the government released the country's first National Climate Risk Assessment which highlighted Australians are at risk from more frequent and severe flooding, cyclones, heatwaves, droughts and bushfires. 

Currently we find ourselves in housing and cost of living crises, set against the backdrop of climate and biodiversity extinction crises. We need more homes for those displaced by the floods and for essential workers and volunteers.

Byron Shire Council risks losing its planning powers to ‘independent intervention’ if it does not ‘demonstrate how it intends to improve its housing supply’. 

The crisis of unaffordable and insecure rentals here is not news, but right now there’s a real opportunity to help fix it. 

A new Essential Guardian poll shows 60 per cent of Australians support a freeze on rental increases.

The much anticipated report by the NSW Independent Planning Commission (IPC) into Council’s planning proposal around holiday letting was released last week, with commissioners recommending a 60-day yearly cap on non-hosted holiday letting across the Shire, instead of Council’s 90-day proposal.

The long-awaited report by NSW Independent Planning Commission into Byron Shire Council’s planning proposal around holiday letting has been released, with commissioners recommending a 60-day cap on non-hosted holiday letting across the Byron Shire.

The latest action from the short-term rental accommodation (STRA) campaigners is an alarmist email exhorting recipients to ‘Join the fight to protect your right to stay in a holiday home in Byron Bay’.

Byron Shire Council’s plan to impose a 90-day cap on un-hosted short-term holiday letting across much of the Shire will be examined by the Independent Planning Commission during a three-day public hearing this week.

Local resident Liz Friend raised thousands of dollars for the homeless in 2021 in recognition of the housing crisis that was swamping the region,...