Letters
Reasons to refuse Woolies’ s98 Rather than argue logical or real sewage issues, Woolworths has stuck with illogic. The argument about whether it can make their ludicrous onsite sewerage system work at Station Street (which it can’t) is a smokescreen over the real issue here. To date, Woolworths has had consultant BRW from Toowoomba for their onsite sewage management (OSM) proposals. Their many Woolworths submissions so far show that BRW seems to know nothing about OSM in NSW. Councillors will have a week in June or July to read the new Section 68 submission and vote on it. Shame – it doesn’t go on public display like a DA does. When considering and finally approving Woolworths
Section 96 last year, the Department of Planning (DoP) in Sydney, realised they also knew nothing (quote from Sergeant Schultz). They engaged consultants Whiteheads to review the OSM application. Mullumbimby Community Action Network now has these reviews, obtained under FOI. It turns out that Woolworths intends to tanker its sewage away from Station Street in wet weather (but isn’t that all the time?). The DoP thinks that is fine and so asked its Minister Kenneally to approve the Section 96, which she did. The Station Street site is saturated for about half a normal year and for three quarters of a wet year. The tankers are not a last re-
sort, they are the main mechanism. That is the smokescreen. Woolworths will irrigate on odd days to save their landscaping and some tanker money but the bulk of the sewage will go out by truck. The rest of Mullumbimby has had to put its development plans on hold for ten years, due to a sewage moratorium in town. We couldn’t subdivide, or build granny flats, or the extra bedroom, or the new subdivision because Clause 45 said we didn’t have prior adequate arrangements for the sewage. And we still don’t. There was no tinkering with tankering allowed either. So why should Woolworths get what the rest of the Shire couldn’t have? No reason, except that a DoPe in Sydney
said it’d be fine. This idea was rejected locally by our council, but approved by a shonky state government under shonky planning laws. There is no reason for locals to cave in and approve the Section 68 now. Councillors, please reject Woolworths Section 68 application. Vote NO. Woolworths can always come back with a new proposal that does work. Or they could ask DoP for help, since DoP thinks it can be done. Or they could just do what Frank Sartor approved in 2006, build on half the block and irrigate on the other half. Stick by the rules? No, not if you’re the big poo people.
Under fire
pens when you are a vassal of a state government that changes the rules on a weekly basis to enhance their funding opportunities. On another matter I notice that someone has levered the lid off John Lazarus’s (self-inflicted) political coffin and he is out spinning his version of history on the Splendour DA (Letters, May 26). I know he was devastated to see Jan Barham not support the DA as he had spent considerable time and effort attacking her supposed support. Now he is beating up the rezoning issue which I understand is dead in the water until the new LEP comes to life.
bush challenge in South Golden Beach (last few Echos) and how volunteers exacerbated the whole problem made me question my idea of a ‘green council’. I find it really hard to believe that this, our ‘green council’, has not yet furthered a smarter way of roadside, dune, play and sports ground vegetation management. Why does BSC not employ proactive council staff who are interested in developing progressive chemical free management strategies for unwanted vegetation? Spray on? Not happy, Jan!
dent of Ocean Shores who has witnessed the destruction of the littoral ecosystems by this rampant weed for decades and the failure of any other method of control, I can only congratulate both Byron Shire and the NPWS for having the courage to follow the example set by Tweed Shire in its outstandingly successful attack on Bitou bush. The effective use of glyphosate is plain to see for those who can remove their blinkers long enough to appreciate that sometimes it is necessary to choose between the ‘lesser of two evils’. Applied at the right time of year and in very diluted quantities it is most effective and has minimal effect on other species. One has only to walk or cycle north along the old sandmining track behind the foredunes of the Billinudgel Nature Reserve to be struck by the contrast between the desert of bitou bush, which is the present
Another day, another Echo, and yet another torpedo fired at the Byron Shire Target Ship by Greens erstwhile ally and forest knight Dailan Pugh (Letters, May 26). I know it is folly to join in this conversation but I was under the impression that BSC had taken a rather front-foot stand on the West Byron lands. Not only have we openly defied the planning supremo Kristina (Buckets) Kenneally but have moved to bring forward the Growth Management Strategy to try and get a handle on whether the WB lands and other areas are appropriate for development in the context of Cr Tom Tabart the Regional Growth Strategy Brunswick Heads foisted on us by the State, without consultation. Bitou control Yes, I know it is all out of Reading the statements made synch but this is what hap- by Council staff about the bitou
Iris Detenhoff
Mullumbimby ■I wish to add my support to Byron Shire’s decision to assist in the control of bitou bush in our dunal ecosystems by the use of aerial spraying. As a resi-
Letters to the Editor 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; pseudonyms not acceptable. Please include your full name, address and phone number.
Frankly My Dear
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Mullumbimby
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NATHAN KAYE The Byron Shire Echo June 2, 2009 11