THE BYRON SHIRE Volume 23 #22 Tuesday, November 4, 2008 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 22,700 copies every week
Pages 19 - 21
REALITY BY A HALF HEAD
Council seeks to exhibit new LEP Michael McDonald
You will believe a turtle can fly: Australian Seabird Rescue’s Garry Fenton gets ready to release Rasputin at The Pass last Friday. Photo Jeff ‘The Old Shell Game’ Dawson.
Help keep track of turtles ‘Make Turtles Count’ is not a compulsory arithmetic project for reptiles but the latest initiative of Australian Seabird Rescue, launched at The Pass last Friday with the release of young turtles ‘Sassy’ and ‘Rasputin’. The Make Turtles Count project has been funded by WWF and the Australian government. A beach monitoring program will span the turtle nesting and hatching season from November 1 to April 30, as well as four 10-day underwater surveys conducted through the year. The project covers 225 kilometres of coastline between the Clarence
and Tweed Rivers. Partner agencies include the National Parks and Wildlife Service, Cape Byron Marine Park, Southern Cross University and the Byron Underwater Research Group. Project coordinator Keith Williams said, ‘A comprehensive nesting and population survey has never been undertaken on the far north coast and is vital for the ongoing protection of these endangered species. ‘Over the past few years local beach users have demonstrated their interest in looking out for turtles and
now we all have the opportunity to work together on this project. ‘We need at least 100 people to help monitor the beaches,’ Keith said. ‘So many people already walk, surf, swim or fish on the beaches, it’s just a matter of knowing what to look for and how to report turtle activity.’ ASR will also be promoting the project at local markets and community events and people will be able to sign up for the project at a ‘Make Turtles Count’ stall. Further information is available from admin@ seabirdrescue.org or 6686 2852 during office hours.
Northern sports fields strategy adopted Further sports fields in the north of the Shire came a step closer on October 23 when Councillors voted 8-0 in favour of a motion from Cr Ross Tucker to adopt the Northern Shire Sporting Fields Strategy with amendments. The outcome will see dressing rooms, showers and light-
ing for the Tom Kendall Field at New Brighton. The amendments also included development of additional amenities at the fields used by the Mullumbimby Rugby League Club and improvements at the Mullumbimby netball courts.
Council will also hold a workshop ‘to address the issues of Lot 423, New Brighton and Dung Oval, Billinudgel and any other related issues’. Lot 423 next to Tom Kendall Field at New Brighton has been targeted for additional sports fields but some continued on page 2
Unease pipped Confusion at the post in the Local Environmental Plan Stakes last Friday. Byron Shire councillors struggled to come to grips with the new draft LEP, staff stressed the urgency of getting the plan on public exhibition, and Belongil resident John Vaughan voiced concerns over some of the plan’s ‘arduous and stringent’ zonings. The process was no easier for the general public and the media. Annexures from an earlier meeting were missing from the agenda papers and one related report only turned up in paper form on the day. And what was meant to be a meeting about the LEP swung chiefly to an hours-long debate on holiday letting. That debate resulted in a successful motion by Cr Patrick Morrisey for Council to adopt a holiday letting model regulated through an approval system other than by development application and for that model to go on public exhibition. The model will also need state government approval, so Council in conjunction with other councils will lobby the NSW government to that effect.
Holiday letting models After beginning at 10.30am and waddling through to 3.30pm, Council also resolved 7-1, Cr Cameron opposed, to seek approval from the Department of Planning (DoP) to put the draft LEP on public exhibition and to include provisions for holiday letting based on the Morrisey model rather than the 12 options offered up by staff. Council’s planners expect the DoP will take around six months to give that approval and the final LEP is unlikely to be gazetted before the end of 2009. Along the way to the LEP resolution, Mayor Jan Barham was successful with a motion to receive a further report on the Local Environmental Study (LES) for the LEP clarifying
key strategic directions as they affect the planning document. Cr Barham found the LEP process to date confusing and sought greater clarity: ‘This is meant to be our community document to define the future.’ Mayor Barham was also critical of the way the LEP was progressed through Council without councillor input through a formal planning committee. ‘I’d like to return to that time-honoured tradition, ‘ she said. She described some of the state government planning templates as ‘not appropriate’ and said the LES ‘shouldn’t have cost $100,000’. During public access Mr Vaughan, the lone speaker, claimed that, under the new LEP zonings, property rights of landowners on the Belongil beachfront would be removed without compensation. ‘This will have an enormous economic impact and will only end up in a bunfight,’ he said. Councillors were broadly of two schools of thought: that more information was needed before proceeding, or, that further delays before Christmas would delay the exhibition of the LEP unnecessarily.
‘Get on with it’ ‘We need to get on with it,’ said Cr Ross Tucker. ‘Quite frankly I don’t like the document but if we put it on exhibition, landowners can have a look at it. If you think holiday letting will be the only issue, then you’re mistaken. The LEP we have now will not be the document we end up with in 18 to 24 months – it’ll get a terrific amount of panelbeating.’ To add to the panelbeating, NSW planning minister Kristina Keneally has just announced another round of the planning reforms which have bedevilled the process over the last few years. This reform allows for ‘special project managers’ to manage the rezoning of land across the state to be provided more quickly for housing, commercial or industrial use. Watch this space.