Letters
Family Law
Belongil works will reduce harm With regard to the use of the Environmental Levy for the Belongil interim beach access stabilisation works: the average person on the street may not know what the levy is approved for, but a quick search on Council’s website will show that one of the levy’s focuses is coastal hazard planning and management – exactly what the ‘beach access stabilisation works’ are designed to do. Even for the climate sceptics, it is hard to deny that stronger storm events are coming our way, similar to the one that took out a whole road, which was once called The Esplanade, in front of the present rock walls. Such an event would see the Belongil Spit being cut off and emergency workers and residents
potentially put in harm’s way ferrying residents who have had their power, water and sewerage cut off. This could happen anyway with the proposed interim rock wall but it will surely go a long way to reduce the harm and a good deal further than the present wall of sandbags. The present existing rock walls and geobags have been in place for decades and have not destroyed the shorebird nesting site; neither have they taken away the beach. Engineers from Council’s consultant firm WRL have noted there will be minimal impact along the shore when replacing present geobag structures with a carefully engineered rock wall. The ‘beach access stabili-
sation’ walls are in just three small gaps comprising 150 metres in total that are on, for the most part, Council’s own public land. As Cr Paul Spooner noted at the council community workshop for the Coastal Zone Management Plan last week, many of the Belongil landowners spoke up and said they will pay for their own walls. It is mischievous to suggest that the community will be asked to pay millions of dollars to protect a few wealthy landowners. For the Manfred Street works, the portion of costs still not funded may be quite minimal after negotiations with landowners and government grants. These stabilisation works will potentially help to pro-
tect the whole of the suburb of Belongil. In turn all those who use and access the beach at this point via council public land will benefit from safe, stable beach access. At this time many hundreds of hessian bags will be removed from the beach; they have in the past disintegrated and found their way into the ocean, which would have caused untold harm to our marine and bird population. Because we now live with an uncertain future, when the facts change or further information comes to light a prudent person will reassess the situation and act according to the precautionary principle. That is one of the many roles of a councillor. Cr Rose Wanchap Byron Bay
The blue pills
villages instead. The mayor said, oh, those too. In other words, ‘Who cares what the people want?’ The mayor spoke about ‘our town where we love to live’. He lives in Federal. A woman showed me a clipping from last summer, when residents’ two big concerns were illegal holiday lets and the booze tourists. We recalled the mayor made up slogans, deflected people into little groups, and did...? Nothing. In other words, Byron Shire, you’ve been conned. By a kiddies’ pantomime player. I wonder how long until Hans Lovejoy works that out. Matt Hartley Byron Bay
to do so, and whether any debate took place. Simon Richardson has been silly enough to admit in writing that it is because ‘some persons’ (ie me) used question time to ‘grandstand’ and ‘bully’ that he supported the abolition; in other words it was indeed personal, just as I thought. For a nice bloke Simon’s pretty good at the old putdown, isn’t he? Of course he’d be the last bloke to realise he’s just shooting the messenger. I’ve been less successful in determining who was brave enough to initiate the change. My letter to GM Ken Gainger as to whether the change came via a staff recommendation or a motion from one of the councillors was met with the reply ‘neither’, followed with the usual evasive bureaucratese about committee processes. Well, well, in the age of science we seem to have a veritable miracle: the words ‘public question time’ simply disappeared themselves from the relevant poli-
cy. Let’s call it the Immaculate Deletion – with Simon in the role of cuckold. The abolition of question time saves staff a lot of grief. The smugness in Ken Gainger’s letter tells me it was the staff who planted the idea, which would of course fall on fertile ground given the resentment of many councillors at any suggestion that there are things they might have missed or not have understood. The senior staff are excellent psychologists and they have a long-established tradition of manipulating inexperienced and wellmeaning councillors. If flattery and false camaraderie fail they can always resort to active undermining – ask Jan Barham. The fact that staff are on continued on next page
Suffering from cognitive dissonance? Trouble in holding two mutually exclusive propositions at the same time? Try Dr Abbott’s little blue pills. Seemingly efficacious for some. Jim Nutter Main Arm
The fix is in Attending the Byron United forum re Byron’s future was fascinating. We learned that West Byron housing estate must be approved to fund the bypass. Also that we must have a bypass to be able to do West Byron. And that all the capacity of the bypass will be absorbed, mostly by the thousands of new residents in West Byron. But we have to allow it, because hey, we can’t even fix the new roundabout that needs fixing, apparently. In other words, ‘Shut up and get West Byroned.’ Voices from the floor asked if we, the public, could have a direct democratic say in local government. The mayor deflected this, promising a webcast of what happens now; in other words, ‘No.’ Tom Mooney reminded the mayor that the people don’t want urban sprawl; they have always wanted a shire of
Letters to the Editor Send to Letters Editor Michael McDonald, 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. Please include your full name, address and phone number for verification purposes.
Questions, questions Public servants and those we elect to look after our interests are obliged by law to give reasons for their decisions. Accordingly I’ve made enquiries to try to determine why question time was abolished, whose initiative it was
THE
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