W R I T I N G L A W S I S E A S Y, B U T G O V E R N I N G I S D I F F I C U LT
– L E O TO LSTOY
The Byron Shire Echo • Volume 33 #36 • Wednesday, February 13, 2019 • www.echo.net.au
BSC to lead the way on short-term holiday letting
Mourning the Byron Bypass
Aslan Shand Calls to stem the tide of short-term holiday letting in Byron Shire have finally been heard. NSW planning minister Anthony Roberts has announced a ministerial direction allowing Byron Shire Council some degree of determination over how holiday letting is implemented locally. New planning rules (a shortterm rental accommodation (STRA) act was passed by the current NSW government in August 2018) are set to apply from late 2019. These will allow absentee landlords to rent their regional properties for up to 365 days per year. Regional councils will be able to impose a 180-day limit per year.
Byron Shire exceptional
Byron Shire Council Notices ▶ p10
Mourning the ‘critical habitat of endangered species’ that will be destroyed when the Byron Bypass is built over local wetlands locals came together to mark World Wetland Day on February 2. ‘I am shocked that in this day and age when it is beholden on civil authorities to take responsible action on climate change, that our council is set to destroy any wetlands at all,’ said Ms Rosie Lee from under her veil of mourning. ‘At what point in zero emissions Byron by 2020 is destruction of wetlands a NO GO OPTION? Conservation of forests and wetlands is one of the top ten actions we can take to ameliorate the impacts of climate change. The “offset” they are claiming is already a gazetted wetland conservation area.’ Photo Jeff Dawson
Will government force Bluesfest to quit Byron? Chris Dobney Byron Bluesfest director Peter Noble has threatened to move the iconic festival interstate if the Berejiklian government refuses to withdraw its draconian new festival policy. The policy came about in response to two drug-related deaths at Defqon.1 in Sydney in
A mixed report card for Council ▶ p11
September last year. But Bluesfest, which annually attracts tens of thousands of mostly middle-aged visitors to Byron, has been deemed a ‘highrisk’ event by the state government despite never having had a drug problem. Mr Noble warns the ‘poorly thought-through new policy’ is set to ‘decimate the industry’ and cost
Sun, waves and culture at the Byron Bay Surf Festival ▶ p18
hundreds, if not thousands, of jobs. ‘Tens of millions of dollars, a lot of it spent rurally, will no longer be generated,’ he said. Under the new rules, festivals would be required to fork out for the cost of policing ‘at whatever price they levy’, Mr Noble said, and would only be able to sell midstrength alcohol. He estimates the cost to the
festival and the impact on income would run into the hundreds of thousands of dollars.
The latest in the Berejiklian government’s swathe of nanny-state rules is set to ‘destroy the industry in NSW’, he said. Just days ago, Mountain Sounds ▶ Continued on page 2
Refugees call Mullum home ▶ p20
Meet the creative folk from Habitat and the A&I Estate ▶ p24
Festivals cancelled
Electrical licence 255292C
Mr Roberts, speaking outside Byron Shire Council Chambers on Monday, said that if re-elected a Liberal-National government would introduce caps of 180 days per calendar year to apply when the host is not present in STRA properties in metropolitan Sydney and some regional areas. He then said that Byron Shire had exceptional circumstances and, following advocacy from Nationals senator Ben Franklin, he had ‘decided to issue a ministerial direction which invites Byron Shire to lead the way by proposing 90-day thresholds in the most impacted towns of the LGA (local government area). Council can now begin the preparation of a planning proposal to make this happen.’ ▶ Continued on page 4
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