Letters
Elements opinions
What a great edition of The Echo and diversity of news and opinions this week. It would be good if Jeff Harrison (Letters, December 23) realised how diversity works. That probably half of Sunrise (according to Jeff, 1000+ people) wants North Byron Beach Resort/Elements and its train, and probably half do not. I have no idea, not having done a formal survey. But Jeff ’s assertions (not based on any formal survey) that because his ‘immediate neighbours and friends from the area’ (how many is that
– 20 people?) also share his ‘positive enthusiasm for Elements and Sunrise Beach’s future’ this somehow justifies his attack on people who don’t share his enthusiasm for the multimillion-dollar resort with its proposal for a dirty old-fashioned diesel train running through our suburb. There are to be no stations in Sunrise, only one at Bayshore Drive near Elements’ venues. Residents living in the middle of Sunrise are unlikely to walk 500 metres or more to get to this station and families of four are not likely to pay $24 to get into town and back
regularly. I assume Jeff Harrison lives pretty close to this station, does not have a bike or car, and doesn’t like buses. I look forward to joining his pro-Elements group and then fighting for future polluting and environmentally destructive developments for our glorious zero-emissions, environmentally sensitive Byron Shire. Lee Cass Byron Bay
Compost dreaming In Dave Lisle’s letter (Echo, December 23) he refers to the ‘new Byron Shire Council
scheme for saving the planet’ as brilliant. Ironically brilliant, of course, because according to Dave we all compost our green waste in our own backyards. Do we? During my work in sustainability in this shire I have seen or, more to the point, smelt more dysfunctional compost heaps than I care to remember. Also, many red bins posing as accidental compost bins ready to be shipped off to landfill. Methane and nitrous oxide produced in poorly constructed and maintained compost heaps or green waste in landfill should be minimised. These gases are more potent than atmospheric carbon – this much we know. I figure Council’s decision to introduce green waste collection was a pragmatic one – organic waste needs to be kept out of landfill. Humans are often very silly indeed. We can’t blame Council for everything. Nina Bishop Mullumbimby
big impact on walkers. Much of this town is a joy to walk in. I want that not to be degraded. Perhaps it can even be improved? So let’s put our heads together, on foot of course! Imagine the fun! We could locate and advocate for logical shortcuts, identify important spots that need to remain unchanged, even develop a walkers’ policy. It’d be simple,
of course, coherent with the essential nature of walking. There is walking for pleasure and walking as transport, ie as a substitute for cars! Bikes and walkers are different beasts and should not be lumped together. Planners tend to overlook walkers, I suspect. It requires no petrol or parking. It requires little funds allocation. continued on page 13
lightworksonline.com.au 80 Centennial Cct, Byron A+I Estate 6685 5744
Bangalow on foot Calling walkers, living in Bangalow, who want to have coordinated input into the big planning changes coming soon. Walking is downgraded and ignored; but in reality, the positioning of roads, fumes, parking, safety, fences and boundary lines have a
A cool car tattoo, to remind you when your rego is due.
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The Byron Shire Echo December 30, 2015 11