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Build a groyne Memo to Cr Duncan Dey: if you want to save a beach, build a groyne. But then, if the political paralysis on traffic jams continues in the same vein as the past two decades for the next, then the town will be in gridlock and nobody will be able to get to the beach anyway, so problem solved. Lester Brien Byron Bay
Belongil rocks
The article in last week’s Echo (‘Belongil rock project open for comment’) unfortunately is misleading to residents. There will be no public consultation on this matter. The councillors who voted for it to happen never determined for it to go out on public exhibition. Dumping rocks on the Belongil sand spit will not be determined via a normal development application pro-
cess but under Part 5 of the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act. Under this provision there is no process for residents of the Shire to make a submission on this matter either for or against. The decision is effectively to be determined behind closed doors. This is the main reason I did not vote in support of this happening. I believe Byron Shire residents deserve better than this from our elected representatives. Cr Paul Spooner Byron Bay
The cycle exchange I wouldn’t recognise Robin Harrison if I found him in my sock. He does seem to have a personal agenda regarding me and if he’d like to come around and discuss this with me I’d be pleased to meet him. W B Crompton Mullumbimby
Fire sale So happy to read that Byron Shire Council are balancing their books by selling off assets (The Roundhouse site in Ocean Shores for one), and despite local opposition and promises to the contrary prior to election (but that’s another story). What will they
Clear health benefits in fluoridation Fluorine, the first of the halogens, of which some are so terrified, is naturally found in life as fluoride. For example, it is found in tea, and more so in green tea, widely praised for its dental and general health benefits. There have been no indications that this has harmed anyone over many cuppas and years of tea-drinking. Nor is there any solid science against fluoride’s use, even in hot non-stick frypans. To the contrary, there is convincing proof that it helps teeth, to the point where most people now die with their own teeth, or some of them, and at 75, instead of at 45 without any, as in the 1800s. Many people brought up with fluoride since the 50s have perfect teeth. This is much better. Fluoride was first introduced into drinking water in Grand Rapids, Michigan,
in the 1940s. Other US states rapidly followed without hesitation or any apparent ill-effects since, and considerable benefits. Did I mention that it also helps stop osteoporosis by toughening bones? Fervent opposition to fluoridation came from the ultra-right-wing John Birch Society, which maintained that it was a filthy Communist mind-control plot, admirably satirised in Kubrick’s Dr Strangelove; designed to interfere with ‘precious bodily fluids’, fluoridation gave valid grounds for the total destruction of the world. (Not a good starting point for a protest.) Conspiracy theories about waste aluminium byproducts and the sugar industry abound, but given there is no firm evidence of fluoride doing any harm, the remaining objections are based on individual freedom, etc. But there
is an insidious side to these objections. Those who would most benefit from fluoridation – the poor, the ignorant, the disadvantaged, and more particularly their children – are those most unlikely to seek or receive regular dental care, or obtain personal fluoride tablets from whichever public authority is handing them out, or remember to use them. Or to be a ‘stakeholder’ and campaign for fluoridation. And most people with money, wholly illogically, prefer bottled water, so would not drink fluoridated water if we had it in any event. (What on Earth are they on about, and why, one asks.) Those who seek to deny the less-well-off this distinctly successful and comparatively cheap public health measure (certainly when compared with desperate operations on babies) are like American Re-
publicans arguing that making the rich pay less taxes is good for everyone. Refusing to participate in fluoridation (or the iodisation of salt, or chlorination of water, all of which use halogens, to the benefit of all – for instance, no-one gets cholera any more) causes social injustice and does active harm to the disenfranchised. Those without have to do without, as usual, when this should not be. Fluoridation has clear health benefits for the vast majority of the population, and no real downside. We are a democracy, and a 50.01 per cent ‘mandate’ is enough to justify governments taking irrevocable steps into the relative unknown. The whims of the privileged few should not be allowed to prevail where the benefits are so clear.
sell next year, pray to plug up the potholes then? Any idiot will tell you this is disastrous economics but why am I not surprised. Pass the deficit on to the next lot who get voted in and have a good whinge about how it’s not their fault?
And while I’m on the subject can someone please explain why we need more meetings to discuss the fluoride issue as our beloved mayor says Council have already decided to vote against adding this toxin to our water supply. Is there something he’s not telling us... again? Kate Johnson Ocean Shores
We loved all the trouble the children and parents went to with their costumes and we really enjoyed all the ‘Thank You’s. A most enjoyable and pleasant evening for us, all for an outlay of some lollies. Well done all. Grace Frew Ocean Shores
A pleasant evening
As one of the 12,000 plus ‘disingenuous individuals’ who actively support action for a moratorium on coal seam gas extraction, I am saddened but not surprised that once again minister Don Page has backed away from supporting his constituents. He now has
resorted to divisive language, questioning our sincerity, to make his point. His backflip on his support for returning our rail services, his backflip on his support for the residents of the north of Byron Shire over the North Byron Parklands development, and now his total lack of support for the 12,000plus residents who gathered together to learn about the potential devastation of coal seam gas, and who signed the petition calling for a moratorium, indicate how many of our elected politicians ‘unsupport’ those who they are elected to represent. Minister Page and the continued on next page
I would just like to comment on how well behaved and polite all the children were who called to our house on Halloween night – and there were quite a few. We particularly noticed the big kids giving the little kids a ‘fair go’.
THE
Don’s backflips
Richard Moloney
Mullumbimby
RAILS
THE RAILWAY FRIENDLY BAR, BYRON BAY 6685 7662 THE FAMOUS RAILS kitchen Wednesday 13 November
MARTHA MARLOW Thursday 14 November
RICHIE WILLIAMS Friday 15 November
THE SIMON WRIGHT BAND Saturday 16 November
THE SOREN CARLBERG BAND Sunday 17 November
THE CHRIS COOK BAND Monday 18 November
ANDY BURKE Tuesday 19 November
BEN KELLY North Coast news daily: www.echonetdaily.net.au
The Byron Shire Echo November 12, 2013 11