Letters Doing over residents Why do governments give precedence to a minority of investors and speculators, over the majority of residents, homeowners, and tenants, when it comes to Airbnb? Who profits? Who loses? All those established motels and hotels and caravan parks who pay to be accommodation businesses for one. Where are the fire and safety costs in an Airbnb? As well as payment of licences, regulatory charges, local government rates, adequate parking, and taxes? If I buy next to a motel, my purchase price is reflected in the cost, and I know I’m next to an accommodation business with a manager on site to control unruly guests. The Airbnb company was conceived after its founders rented out an air mattress in their living room, effectively turning their apartment into a bed and breakfast, to offset the high cost of rent in San Francisco. Someone was living there as a regulator who doesn’t want an allnight party every night. Airbnb is an American home rental platform based in San Francisco that lets people list, find, and rent short-term lodging in 65,000 cities and more than 191 countries across the globe... now valued at $31 billion. So, Airbnb Inc gets some money for me losing sleep.
An absentee owner pays off a mortgage, while I lose sleep. The local council only gets standard land value rates! We know that for the past six years general wages have stagnated for the worker, while big business and the wealthy keep making money, even during COVID. And now their investments are taking away our community, lifestyle, and sleep – so they can pilfer even more wealth. When will we see young families being able to access the home market again? Certainly not until wages grow and wealth distribution become more reasonable. Then, young owner-buyers may get a chance to buy a home for their family. Stock markets are still growing, so why can’t these property investors move their money into just more shares and give the average taxpayer a chance to have a home and a quiet community. Richard White East Ballina
Overdevelopment şŕȞlwƆ ëŕĎ !¨Ɔȃ Having worked as a planning consultant in Byron Shire for the past 40 years I am mystified why Council planning staff ‘are pushing to prohibit dual occupancy and secondary dwellings on approved multiple occupancies (MO) and community titles (CT) in rural areas’ (Echo 18 November).
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to pay the price at the ballot box and still they refuse to embrace modern environmental policies or to accept anthropogenic climate change as the existential threat to the very people they claim to represent. Alan Veacock Cumbalum
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Cartoon by Holly English www.hollyenglish.com Over the last ten years Council has allowed dual occupancy or ‘granny flats’ in urban areas to allow increased population without additional land take in urban areas. The dwelling density on MOs is controlled largely by the proven ability to demonstrate the responsible disposal of waste water, manage traffic, noise and bushfire planning. Sixty plus years ago NSW planning law allowed for a greater residential dwelling density in rural areas. Prior to that NSW had adopted British planning laws of ‘Urban’ and ‘Non-Urban’. That is, you were a farmer or you lived in town. The allowance of a greater residential density in rural areas has allowed for a ‘living in nature’ lifestyle that an increasing number of people in Byron and the adjoining shires enjoy. I am mystified to understand on what basis Council planning staff would
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move to limit the lifestyle options available to their constituents. The term ‘overdevelopment’ means what? Is this a state government directive or just a bunch of ‘townies’ dictating how we should live? They profess to be a green council, which allows for a diversity of lifestyle in the way we interact with nature and community. Let’s not be pushed around by bureaucratic influences from Sydney. As a council engineer/planner boss of mine said to me 40 years ago, ‘We do things differently up here’. Vive la difference. Boyd Warren Main Arm
ćşƱ Īşſ ŊşëōëƆ What an outstanding effort by Liberal MLC Catherine Cusack, to stand up to the premier and a belligerent National Party to thwart what would have been a death sentence for what remains of the koala population in NSW.
Take a bow Catherine, you have done a great service for the koalas and your community that passionately support them. John (Pork) Barilaro and Clarence MP Chris Galaptus claiming ‘farmers deserve certainty’ is farcical. Do the koalas deserve extinction? One has only to watch great programs like Landline on our poorly funded ABC to see that a growing number of farmers are actually replanting koala trees on their property in an effort to reintroduce these iconic marsupials. If the NSW government was serious about koala conservation they should be paying all relevant landowners compensation for their conservation efforts. The National Party is now in serious decline. They have become little more than an agent for the fossil fuel industry, and the irrigation industry, and with this latest effort, the property developers wanting to clear koala habitat. They continue
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Tuesday, 24 November was a peak stuff-up for Byron Council. Roadworks at the town end of Shirley St had traffic banked up to the Arts and Industry Estate and back along Jonson St through to the Bay Grocer roundabout. I thought I’d avoid further delays by coming home via Bangalow Road only to encounter a film crew at work and a major detour via Coopers Shoot. My 30 minute trip took about two-and-ahalf hours. Council knew about both these activities well in advance, so the question is: why didn’t it let us know about the inevitable delays? After all, it has the contact details of every local parking permit holder. Or, it could have placed a modest display ad in The Echo. But no, it told us nothing, and the resultant chaos leaves us wondering about its basic competence, particularly its willingness to communicate with the people it claims to represent. Paul Rea Coorabell
wŕƷë lëŕĎƷ There are so many wonderful, complementary, erudite and positive adjectives which can be easily used to describe you, wonderful Mandy Nolan. ▶ Continued on next page
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