Letters We all evacuated this week due to bush fires. Do we want to bring tourists to a vulnerable zone with terrible water shortages? I represent the neighbours and trust that councillors will refuse the DA once again. Ben Fawcett Wilsons Creek
Brunswick Heads Newsagents Best range of locally made gift cards in the shire Moonface Maddy, Edith Streiner Marion Liddle, Emma Green
Bypass blues
Thanks carers We neglect the people who care for our parents and our children. Carers are undervalued in our community and each day head off to try to achieve the impossible. The aged care sector is totally underfunded and broken ‘Dem system is a strain and a mess’ (by Kabaka Pyramid Can’t Breathe). It is placing the frontline carers under extreme pressure and it must be breaking carers emotionally. What is the point of a balanced budget if we break carers and the best we can give to our parents is a life of waiting to die. To those carers on the frontline – thank you. Let’s hope that the royal commission will see some
Letters to the Editor Send to Letters Editor Aslan Shand, email: editor@echo.net.au, fax: 6684 1719. 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.
real changes to help you climb the mountain each day. Russell Jackson Binna Burra
DĶſĕǼ ëŕĶŔëōƆ ƆƖǔ ĕſ With bushfires raging and temperatures soaring, we must all do what we can to relieve the suffering of animals, birds and bats. Please ensure you leave out water, buy some bird feed, and bats love apples and bananas – even though it’s hard to string their food high enough. Our non-human friends are doing it tough. Their future survival depends on caring humans. We can all do something. Sue Arnold Ocean Shores
Thank you I would like to say a huge thank you to Saxon from Brunswick Rescue, and Beck from the Mullumbimby veterinary clinic who came immediately to help rescue my horse Dizzy when she was stuck in the mud recently. Lucy Byrne Tyagarah
Ticking wrong boxes It is shocking to consider how many of the more than 700 development applications (DA) submitted
each year to Byron Council may be approved by the planning bureaucrats, which contravene their carefully considered guidelines. Take the example of a proposed ‘rural tourist cabin’ development in Wilsons Creek. This DA is for six cabins, four to be built, with a large pool and entertainment area, on a steep, south-facing slope, next to a power-line and accessed by a rough, narrow, dangerous gravel road via a new, second driveway which will seriously affect neighbours. The property is located in a sound-bowl which transmits any sounds over hundreds of metres. In my opinion, on all of these points the DA contravenes development guidelines. Council’s planners have considered it three times since submission, more than a year ago, recommending it for approval every time. Every one of the fourteen properties surrounding the applicant property has made multiple opposing submissions, with advice from lawyers and planners, but still it is coming back to Council on 21 November, recommended for approval by the bureaucrats after a ‘review’ of councillors’ decision to refuse in August.
It has been easy to get frustrated in the last couple of weeks of reading The Echo, which, as a councillor, it is my responsibility to do. Firstly, the lack of celebration or story of the wonderful opening of the revitalised Railway Park, and last week, the article rehashing the rail corridor bypass route, complete with misleading diagram and commentary. It was then pointed out to me that opponents of the bypass will do everything they can to stop the road, they are within their rights to try, and they see it as their responsibility. My frustration recently has been borne out of the knowledge that all delays to this project are costing our community. Significant amounts of money that could otherwise be spent on improving other infrastructure, or achieving environmental outcomes, as examples. However, it seems this is a price we will need to pay and we must patiently await the umpire’s decision. Whatever that decision is, I hope we can then all respect the outcome and try to move forward knowing that we are all working hard to achieve what we think is in the best interests of our Shire. Cr Michael Lyon The Pocket ▶ More letters on next page
And More
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www.echo.net.au/byron-echo Byron Shire Echo archives
BALLINA
GRAFTON
FERGO
Saturday 23 November
MANOA
Sunday 24 November
JUKE JOINT WAY
Monday 25 November
STEVE TYSON
Tuesday 26 November
DENNIS WILSON
Wednesday 27 November
MATTY ARMITAGE
mşưĕŔćĕſ ǩǧǽ ǩǧǨǰ The Byron Shire Echo 11