THE BYRON SHIRE Volume 27 #21 Tuesday, October 30, 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
Inside this week
Melbourne cup sweep 668: THE NEIGHBOUR OF THE BEAST
CAB AUDIT
Saritah digs deep – p25
Get your This festival That annoying Parker emotions in is uplifting draft Byron bombs on shape – p18 LEP – p11 news – p10 – p21
Centre Spread Liftout
Byron Shire Council Notices Page 51
Keen gardeners relish Mullum festival
Bradbury detained in India: reports
Story & photo Eve Jeffery
Local filmmaker David Bradbury was detained by police near a nuclear power plant in Tamil Nadu on Friday afternoon, according to reports coming out of India. Some sources say police had not arrested Mr Bradbury but had asked him to leave the district. According to Greens nuclear policy spokesperson Senator Scott Ludlam, ‘Mr Bradbury was approaching Idinthakarai, a village that has been subjected to severe police repression in response to anti-nuclear protests, when he was detained and taken to Radhapuram Police Station. He has since been released. I will be raising the matter with the Indian Ambassador. ‘On October 12 an All India Fact Finding team of about 12 people was intercepted on route to Idinthakarai, interrogated and remanded in Tirunelveli Jail. This is part of a pattern of intimidation to silence dissent. ‘Recently at the site of a nuclear reactor in Koodankulam police have used brutal tactics against tens of
It was a wonderful and organic carnival atmosphere at the Food and Living Soil Festival at the Mullumbimby Community Gardens on Saturday. Hundreds of gardeners and the merely curious visited the gardens to explore what was on offer and learn about see. Along with the serious dirt-geek stuff like growing thriving food with living soil, Biodynamics, soil diagnosis, composts, biochar, permaculture and sustainability in general, there was plenty to eat and see. Visitors and the many families were heartily entertained by the Curly Cousins, who sang catchy tunes and a song about the rainbow of food to eat. One of the highlights of the day was a children’s fancy-dress event which saw all manner of garden-inspired costumes on display, including the winning entry by Nini from Wilsons Creek, who grew a beautiful spider’s web on her face just for the occasion. Fancy-dress winner, eight-year-old Nini, wore an unmistakable garden inhabitant motif as part of her costume.
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Environmental zones at heart of Byron LEP controversy Luis Feliu
A group of Byron Shire rural landowners is ramping up a campaign to rid the Shire’s Draft Local Environment Plan (LEP) of new environmental zones which it claims will affect their ability to farm. But Byron Council says many of their fears are unfounded, while an environmental group says the government had ‘effectively removed the environment from local planning’ by its recent decision to excise the new E2 and E3 zones from Byron, Tweed, Lismore, Ballina and Kyogle councils’ LEPs for further review. The Byron Rural Action Group (BRAG), which welcomed the gov-
ernment’s intervention, has organised a second public meeting on the issue, to be held in Bangalow next Wednesday November 7, at which they’re offering to help fill out submissions for the draft LEP, which is on display till November 23. And the Conservation Ecologists Association (CEA) has called for the five councils’ LEPs to be deferred until the state government completes its review of environmental zones which it has temporarily excised. CEA spokesperson, Dr Robert Kooyman, questioned why the government excised the environmental zones and overlays from the LEPs from the far north coast region. ‘Do we really have to remind the
state government that this region is a recognised biodiversity hotspot of national and international significance?’ Dr Kooyman said. ‘Have they forgotten that its rainforests are of World Heritage value? Do they need reminding that historic over-clearing, logging and infrastructure development have resulted in this region having the greatest number of plant and animal species threatened with extinction in NSW? ‘By intervening to excise environmental protection from this region’s local environment plans, the NSW government has removed the responsibility and right of north coast communities to identify what they consider appropriate protection for
rainforests, old-growth forests, endangered ecosystems, core koala habitat, wildlife corridors, scenic escarpments, water catchments and riparian buffers, and other high-conservation value lands,’ he said.
‘Where will you farm?’ In a two-page advertisement in The Echo this week, BRAG uses a map of the shire with all the waterways marked in and headlined ‘Where will you farm?’ The ad claims the draft Byron LEP proposes ‘development conditions within 40 metres’ of each watercourse in the shire. But Byron Shire’s chief planner Ray Darney told The Echo that council
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already considers development near waterways or watercourses as part of the development application process. Mr Darney said landowner concerns over the watercourse mapping in the draft LEP would be considered ‘and it may be an overlay that Council adjusts’. ‘At clause 6.12 within the Draft LEP, waterways and watercourses would be considered as part of development application in order to protect and maintain the water quality, aquatic and riparian habitats, and the stability of banks. ‘The draft LEP does not stop development, only states that any proposed development on waterways should be continued on page 2