IF THERE WAS ONE IMPORTANT MESSAGE NEEDED IT WOULD BE… The Byron Shire Echo • Volume 35 #35 • Wednesday, February 10, 2021 • www.echo.net.au
Festival organiser hit by ȡǢǽǝǝǝ !wÈP'ȒǞǦ Ǖ ŕĕ Paul Bibby
Munchies on Eat Street Miki, Ash and Beck Maples get into some Paddock Pizza. More than 3,000 people enjoyed fine dining, street style, in perfect weather at the Bangalow showgrounds last Friday evening. The market will be held on the first Friday evening of each month at the town’s primary school. Photo Jeff ‘I’ll Have A Pizza, Thanks’ Dawson
Confusion over pump track’s purpose Philippa Clark Confusion over which age group will use the proposed pump track at Suffolk Park has raised further questions over whether community consultation for the track was adequate. Suffolk Park residents have joined the community garden in voicing their concerns about a lack of transparency over stage two of the pump track at the Linda Vidler Memorial Parklands, which was approved by councillors in December. ‘There’s a lot of confusion because on one level it looks like a really small children’s track, but the adolescents are all thrilled we’re having a pump track,’ said Kerry Wright, whose house backs
onto the park. According to the president of the Suffolk Park Progress Association, Donald Maughan, 10 or 12 meetings have been held in the park to facilitate community consultation about the pump track.
Needed for youth ‘We need to build a pump track which is effective for the youth of the area,’ Mr Maughan said. The track drew strong support from the Northern Rivers Dirty Wheels Mountain Bike Club at Alstonville, which has offered to run workshops there when the track is built. All of this prompted residents and current park users to complain at the prospect of teens on BMX
bikes causing a ruckus in the park. But the pump track designs on Council’s website show an asphalt track with bumps between 30 and 50cm high. Mayor, Simon Richardson, said in a letter to concerned residents that he expects the track to be predominantly used by children, especially those on scooters, with parental supervision. Yet the mismatched expectations are causing frustration. ‘It’s unclear in people’s minds. Why would an Alstonville bike [club] be supporting this?’ It is also not clear how much the community poll organised by the SPPA was influenced by track ▶ Continued on page 4
What if the Margo Kingston’s Police double Arts looking trucks stop call to activism standards! creative coming? ▶ p4 in 2021 ▶ p8 ▶ p12 ▶ p22
When local musician Lisa Hunt arrived for a meeting with police last Thursday she was hoping for a somewhat friendlier reception than she had received on the last occasion. Having watched her community concert series, SummerStage, nearly drown in the sea of red tape and regulations recommended by two licensing officers, she was looking for the burden to be eased. Instead, the officers greeted her with a $5,000 fine. The fine, they said, pertained to some dancing in the crowd at the January 9 event – an alleged breach of COVID-19 regulations. Ms Hunt was shocked and angry.
Paid police for services It wasn’t simply the fact that there had only been around 300 people at the concert in question, spread out across the concert venue – Byron’s Red Devil Park. It was also that the two police officers engaged by Ms Hunt, under the state’s User Pays policing system, had been present at the event for the entire day, and had reportedly given no indication to anyone that regulations were being breached. It was a licensing officer who arrived much later – one of the two staff responsible for recommending that the event be subject to tough regulations – who eventually issued the fine. ‘I feel like I’m living in some kind of local mafia movie; getting shaken down, trolled and
targeted’, Ms Hunt said. ‘And all of this, while I’m actually trying to do something good – putting on a concert series for local people, employing local musicians and raising money for the Red Devils Rugby League Club’. Ms Hunt says she will challenge the fine and will be represented by local lawyer, Mark Swivel, from Barefoot Law. ‘There were two police officers there for the entire show – why didn’t they say something if regulations were being breached?’ Ms Hunt also questioned why the police had waited nearly a month to formally issue the fine. She received the penalty a day after speaking out in The Echo about the severe financial impact of the tough regulations imposed by Byron Council and the Office of Liquor, Gaming and Racing following recommendations to this effect by police. These regulations included significantly reducing the number of concerts in the series, imposing expensive parking and toilet requirements, and $3,796 to hire two police officers for the weekend’s two shows.
Going ahead with shows ‘Even though this has been incredibly hard for me personally and financially, we are going ahead with the shows – live music is for our souls,’ Ms Hunt said. ‘The community needs this. I need this, and we really hope people get out there and have a great time and support live music.’ NSW Police was unable to comment by The Echo’s deadline.
Time and tide wait for no man... See our 2021 Sun, Moon and Tides chart ▶ centre pages