Letters
Grappling with Byron gridlock Q I have been thinking about the problems being generated by ever-increasing numbers of vehicles accessing Byron town. The proposed bypass will be ineffective, as the vast majority of vehicles head to the beaches or remain in town and would, as well as having a negative impact on the natural areas, flood quiet residential ones, even a school zone, with hundreds of cars that would increase significantly the risk to children’s safety. And lastly, the impact of the second railway crossing would inhibit the construction of a light train service, an option that has been used in other tourist places around the world with great success. There is a solution to the problem. Set up a free parking lot in Ewingsdale, linked to a safe bicycle and pedestrian path and a shuttle bus in loop to the town and beaches; the Christmas experience was an encouraging one. An incentive to use this ‘park and ride’ infrastructure would be a sensible increase in the street parking fees for non-residents.
This scheme would help reduce the number of daytrippers’ vehicles, and given its low impact and cost, should be given a trial. Because this proposal doesn’t cause irreversible damage, should it not work as expected, more aggressive actions could be then taken into consideration. It goes without saying that should the West Byron development go ahead, all these ideas will be swept away by the harsh reality of the usual problems inherent to every other overcrowded, impersonal coastal town. But then we would be facing a different problem altogether because Byron Bay, as we know it now, will no longer exist – a sad perspective indeed. Juan Cavero Byron Bay
Higher calling
land across Byron Shire. The 2007 Strategy identified that to meet projected regional growth until 2031 the whole of Byron Shire had to provide 2,600 new dwellings, and 40 per cent of these were meant to be west of the highway. We are already exceeding targets. Byron Shire was allocated a reduced share of the regional growth target in recognition of both our importance for tourism and because of the additional impacts of all those extra people. The strategy gave us the opportunity to evolve as a community in a planned approach (rather than being overwhelmed), to better live within environmental and infrastructure constraints, and to better cope with our tourist burden. The state must honour Byron Shire residents’ rights to determine how best to achieve the state’s growth targets in accordance with the state’s regional strategy. Recent events prove that due process must be followed and ministerial discretion must not be unfettered. Byron Shire Council resolved to prepare a local growth management strategy
Q Before even thinking about
a ‘signature master plan which includes an embedded place making strategy’ (whatever that might be) how about actions on the things that make us all so whitehot with rage we can’t think straight to have a ‘nice chat’
like that suggested. Like clean, functioning public toilets (you know, ones you don’t have to apologise to visitors for). If you don’t know what these look like ask somebody’s mum, not the guy who’s been paid two bucks to stand at the door with a fire hose for the last twenty years since repairs were done! Most important: bypass solution/s to take traffic around town – where, how, who, when? Otherwise forget it! Dorothy Mullins Byron Bay Q The First Sun Caravan Park
‘bypass’ proposal by Cr Wanchap in last week’s Echo is the latest in a line of quick-fix non-solutions to Byron Bay’s traffic problems. The ‘Grab the Rail’ proposal mentioned in another story is at least half right, in that it recognises that the vacant railway land is a key ingredient to improving traffic gridlock. However, neither of these ideas addresses the fact that the CBD is both a destination and a thoroughfare, and that
all motorists, whether coming into or passing through town, have no alternative but to take the same road into the CBD and negotiate holiday pedestrians and cars trying to find a park. Closing off the Lawson Street rail crossing and using the railway land as a linear park for up to 1,000 cars in conjunction with the original 1989 Butler Street bypass would provide two separate parallel routes, the first (railway land) for parking many of the 85 per cent of cars going into the CBD before they do so, and the second (Butler Street) allowing the rest to avoid the CBD traffic, parking and pedestrians altogether. The costs could be substantially funded by extending the current paid parking scheme to the new carpark. As for compensation for loss of amenity, the Butler Street residents presumably should be entitled to some kind of council zoning dispensation, say in line with the zoning in Shirley Street. Frank Stewart Byron Bay
SHOWROOM OPEN
6685 5744 | 80 Centennial Cct,
9–5 Mon to Fri
Byron Arts & Industry Estate
Upcoming short courses -----------------------------------------------------------------Christine Willcocks Printmaking 6 weeks 2 May – 6 June
-----------------------------------------------------------------Michael Cusack Working in Abstraction 6 weeks 16 May – 20 June
-----------------------------------------------------------------James Guppy Life Drawing 7 weeks (evenings) 6 May – 17 June
-----------------------------------------------------------------Rene Bolten Portraiture, Still Life & Narrative 6 weeks (Saturdays in Nimbin) 17 May – 21 June
Thank goodness for Council’s ‘calling to a higher purpose’! (Page 2, last week’s Echo.) Without clean drinking water the three Rs could become regrets, remorse and rancour… moreover redundant! Laili Summers Mullumbimby
Residents’ rights As evident from recent letters, the community expects to be allowed to have a say in what land we rezone in Byron Shire for new residential or commercial developments. This should not just be an expectation; the community has a right and responsibility to identify the location and scale of new developments such as West Byron. The 2007 Far North Coast Regional Strategy requires that Byron Shire Council will prepare a local growth management strategy prior to zoning further land for urban, commercial and industrial uses. This process is meant to apply environmental constraints and allow the community a say in identifying the best places for 10-year staged releases of additional
in 2008, though never pursued it. Council must meet its obligations to prepare a local growth management strategy for the whole of the Shire to give residents their say in a planned approach, rather than continuing to let developers and the state impose their ad hoc grandiose schemes upon us. Dailan Pugh Byron Bay
Gas needed The Greens’ irrational blinkered response to Metgasco’s Bentley conventional gas exploration well blinds them to the vital role that gas will play in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) global solution recommendations. The Greens’ local bubble politicking also has no answer to federal industry minister’s Ian Macfarlane’s recent claims about the success of the Queensland gas industry: with 5000 uneventful gas wells, many hundreds of successful voluntary farmer agreements with gas companies and almost 30,000 related jobs created in the Queensland gas industry. What the IPCC is tell-
Letters to the Editor Send to Letters Editor Michael McDonald, fax: 6684 1719 email: editor@echo.net.au Deadline: Noon, Friday. Letters longer than 200 words may be cut. Letters already published in other papers will not be considered. Please include your full name, address and phone number for verification purposes.
North Coast news daily: www.echonetdaily.net.au
ing us today about gas and fracking is what green Gaia guru James Lovelock recently recommended for the UK and also what Bob Brown’s Greens were recommending five years ago: that gas will and should play a major part as a transitional fuel in reducing impacts of climate change. The current opportunistic political diversion in the local Greens politics to continued on next page
THE
-----------------------------------------------------------------Coming Soon... Courses in Digital Photography, Sculpture, Drawing & Illustration and Kids Classes!
-----------------------------------------------------------------Enrol online at byronschoolofart.com | t:0431 034 892 BYRON SCHOOL OF ART
‘The last thing I ever wanted was to be alive when the three most powerful people on the whole planet would be named Bush, Dick and Colon. ‘ – Kurt Vonnegut
RAILS
THE RAILWAY FRIENDLY BAR, BYRON BAY 6685 7662 THE FAMOUS RAILS kitchen Wednesday 23 April
THE FIRETREE Thursday 24 April
THE DAYS Friday 25 April
SOUL’D Saturday 26 April
THE SIMON WRIGHT BAND Sunday 27 April
PAUL WOSEEN Monday 28 April
COREY LEGGE Tuesday 29 April
GUY KACHEL The Byron Shire Echo April 22, 2014 13