THE BYRON SHIRE Volume 26 #41 Tuesday, March 27, 2012 Mullumbimby 02 6684 1777 Byron Bay 02 6685 5222 Fax 02 6684 1719 editor@echo.net.au adcopy@echo.net.au www.echo.net.au 23,200 copies every week
R E S I S TA N C E I S F E R T I L E
CAB AUDIT
Byron bids for ‘mini’ bypass Luis Feliu
A long-awaited plan for a ‘mini’ bypass of Byron Bay’s busy CBD, using a second rail crossing, has been approved by Byron Shire Council. The push will allow access to state funding, says mayor Jan Barham. For years, increasing traffic and gridlocks, especially at the town’s entry, have angered and frustrated locals and visitors alike. Thankfully the urgency of the problem appears to have stirred both levels of government into action. Recently, Ballina MP Don Page, who is both the minister for the north coast and local government, asked Byron Council to finalise a plan in order for him to be able to push for funding.
Allocated $50,00 for plan Council seized the chance and last week gave the green light to the bypass which will connect Butler Street with the busy intersection at Jonson and Marvell Streets, creating a second rail crossing south of the railway platform. Cr Barham said the key to the solution was the second rail crossing, which straddled state government railway land, but state government funding is also vital for the project. As a kickstart, Council has allocated $50,000 to draw plans up for the second rail crossing which Cr Barham
said would ensure the project was ‘shovel ready’ once state money was available. Council has also decided to trial the new traffic arrangement to ensure its effectiveness. The mayor said a project reference group (PRG), made up of community members, councillors and staff, had also been formed to consider and recommend other options to make the town centre user friendly such as park and ride, cycleways, parking and township ‘connectivity’. The second rail crossing, or minibypass option, was endorsed in a major traffic study in 2008 as the best way to smoothe traffic circulation and ease congestion in the town centre. Byron United (chamber of commerce) president Paul Waters welcomed the move but said a few other related options to ease congestion had to be part of the project to make it work. Mr Waters said the suggestions, aired at a recent traffic and parking forum he was part of, included realigning the roundabout opposite the police station using two lanes in and out and building a southern access into the Lawson Street north carpark. He told The Echo he had faith in Mr Page delivering on funding and these extra works would not add very much to the overall cost of the project of around several millions dollars.
Dancing Tommy now viral
‘I’m in the business of making people smile’ is the opening line in one of Tommy Franklin’s YouTube clips, many of which have reached over 10,000 views as the local lad becomes viral. Tommy has found his recent passion to groove is getting him invites to interesting places, including the Sydney Tropfest and the Bondi Rescue film set where Tommy will show the lifesavers a few moves. Photo Eve Jeffery
Ballina mayor’s vote decisive for Lennox land sale Luis Feliu
Ballina mayor Phil Silver used his casting vote last week to push through a controversial plan to sell two beachfront blocks of public land at Lennox Head to an adjoining caravan park. The vacant blocks, opposite the Lennox Head-Alstonville Surf Life Saving Club, will be sold to the Lake Ainsworth Holiday Park at a cost of $1.3 million. In a surprise move, general manager Paul Hickey left the room before the debate after earlier declaring a conflict of interest because of his friendship with the administrator of the North
Coast Accommodation Trust Jim Bolger. Mr Hickey said the conflict of interest was non-significant, nonpecuniary but perceived. He and Mr Bolger had worked at Byron Shire Council nine years ago and they had also been involved in a joint venture investment of a unit which was sold two years ago. Cr Jeff Johnson, who moved a rescission motion, said Mr Hickey had brokered the deal and had earlier told media he had no conflict of interest. He urged councillors to defer the sale of the ‘strategic community land’ until after the Lake Ainsworth precinct management plan, which was
10 years old, was reviewed. Cr Johnson said his motion did not rule out a future sale, but the land would be needed as the area was already very congested and it could be used for parking or open recreational space. He said Lennox Head had a population of around 6,000, which would grow to 22,000 with the new housing developments planned for nearby Cumbalum, putting more pressure on an already congested area. Cr Silver said retaining the land would not give the shire an economic ‘yield’ as it would be sitting on an ‘idle asset’ while community infrastructure ‘dries up’ and council was ‘very
fortunate’ that the state government, through the NCHP, wanted to buy it to expand the Lake Ainsworth caravan park adjacent to the land. Cr Jeff Johnson said afterwards that while other councils were fighting against the takeover of public land by the state government-owned caravan parks, ‘Ballina Council is handing it
to them on a plate with a discounted price tag.’ Lennox Head Chamber of Commerce president Louise Owen was set to appeal again to councillors not to sell the blocks before the meeting, but was unable to attend because of a serious head-on car accident near Casino on Tuesday which has left her in hospital.
Correction from code of conduct story Last week’s story ‘Byron Shire Council’s internal squabbles go public’ claimed that the case reviewer, Kath Roach, is a lawyer. She is in fact a consultant. Additionally, ‘What is irrelevant’
was mistakenly published instead of ‘What is relevant,’ regarding the general manager’s concern that he ‘has not been advised as to the detail of the complaint [against him] or the outcome of the investigation.’
relax with no establishment fee UHÀQDQFH DQG
*
Terms & conditions, fees & charges apply. *No establishment fee applies to home loans only. See us for details.
call or visit us <echowebsection=Local News>
banking on people.
1300 802 222 summerland.com.au