YOU CAN’T FIX STUPID BUT YOU CAN VOTE IT OUT The Byron Shire Echo • Volume 33 #32 • Wednesday, January 16, 2019 • www.echo.net.au
Residents angered by developer’s DA
In Zorba’s caravan
Eve Jeffery
Amir Paiss, Laura Taggart, and Shai Shriki at Saturday’s Zorba Gypsy Party at Durrumbul Hall. The Gypsy Party raised money for refugees in Greece, and transported the large crowd through many styles of Middle Eastern, South American, Australian, and World Music. Photo Jeff ‘Zorba The Geek’ Dawson
Neighbourhood centres feeling the pinch Paul Bibby Local neighbourhood centres must be treated as basic public infrastructure rather than having to fight for short-term contracts and donations to survive, the Local Community Services Association (LCSA) says. As the Mullumbimby District Neighbourhood Centre was saying a sad farewell to its only paid administrative assistant because of funding difficulties late last year, the LCSA released a policy platform calling for wholesale changes to the way such centres are viewed and funded. The policy states that the centres should be viewed as essential ‘social infrastructure’. ‘No-one argues with the fact that you need good schools to have a
decent education system, or that you need decent hospitals to have a decent health system,’ the head of the LCSA, Can Yasmut told The Echo. ‘What we’re saying is that it’s the same for neighbourhood centres – you need good neighbourhood centres for healthy communities. ‘So we think they should receive core funding in the same way that other social infrastructure does.’
Short-term funding Currently neighbourhood centres such as those in Mullumbimby and Byron rely heavily on shortterm funding attached to particular programs. The Mullumbimby District Neighbourhood Centre is all too familiar with the precarious nature
Byron Shire Council Notices ▶ p10
of this situation. It was forced to let its only paid administrative assistant go three weeks ago because her position wasn’t funded. ‘We found that the only way to operate within our means was to reduce the cost of our human resources,’ centre manager Julie Williams said. ‘It means that other staff have to pick up the slack and that means increased workload, increased stress, and taking them away from the other work they’re doing with the community.’ Many of the key positions at the neighbourhood centre, including Ms Williams’s role, are not formally funded. Their wages come from independent income, which ▶ Continued on page 3
Letters to the ed from a well-informed good looking electorate ▶ p13
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Neighbours around Bian Crt and Warrambool Road in South Ocean Shores are calling for staff and councillors to reject outright a DA for the consolidation of three large residential lots and eight townhouses, which The Echo understands is a precedent for the Shire. Resident Sara Gloede said the development would double the density of the area and appears fraught with planning, engineering and ecological obstacles, in addition to the strong united opposition from all surrounding neighbours. She says, ‘The dwellings are proposed over a water easement and council infrastructure on a wet, forested, boggy environment at the bottom of a steep valley.’ The lots are 11 and 13 Warrambool Road and 9 Bian Court, according to the DA. She says, ‘Around 58 locals signed a petition objecting to the original proposal, which was submitted on March 27, 2018.’ Gloede said her group engaged
a range of professionals who demonstrated the original DA failed to adhere to NSW government planning laws and Council policies. ‘This new DA is basically the same, but without two dwellings,’ she said. According to the DA, around 500m3 of imported fill material is required. ‘This could equate to 50 truck movements on an already damaged road surface on Bian Crt,’ said Gloede. ‘There is no construction timeframe for the three-staged DA, yet the last DA suggested six days a week over three years. ‘This proposal does not fit with the character of the street or area, is not a sustainable building design, and would set an unwanted precedent for the area.’ Gloede says, ‘After neighbours met Sydney-based developer Callum Sked on May 2, 2018, the DA was withdrawn.’ ‘We expressed concern at loss of value to our homes, loss of ambience, vista and amenity among other things. ▶ Continued on page 5
Residents want a re-submitted Ocean Shores DA rejected outright and say that like the last DA is fraught with planning, engineering and ecological obstacles and fails to adhere to Council planning policies.
What’s the deadliest of cancers? ▶ p18
Corolla hybrid road tested ▶ p18
Summer rolls on and on... ▶ p19
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