OVER BUDGET AND BEHIND SCHEDULE SINCE 1986 The Byron Shire Echo • Volume 35 #38 • Wednesday, March 3, 2021 • www.echo.net.au
Cop acquitted over child assualt charges
Byron’s new road: the good and not so Hans Lovejoy After more than 30 years of talk, debate, disagreements, tears and political gridlock, Byron Bay has a new road to divert traffic from the CBD to the southern end of town. The new $24m road runs down Butler Street, and turns left, emerging where Mitre 10 and Byron Music are located, at the end of Jonson Street. Greens Mayor, Simon Richardson, joined Nationals MLC, Ben Franklin, on Saturday, ‘in a 1977 Bay Kombi van, to do an official first lap of the new road’. Yet elected Greens MP for the region, Tamara Smith, told The Echo she declined an invitation to attend. She said, ‘As usual in politics, anyone that was championing for better protections for the environment or for the protection of the Butler Street heritage neighbourhood was anti-bypass. Inversely, anyone who wanted the road was portrayed as anti-environment and indifferent to the plight of residents. Until we get beyond these binaries, we will keep getting win/ lose scenarios’.
Biobanking ‘a joke’ Ms Smith said the ‘environment definitely lost out with the bypass’ and the project’s environmental offsets, or biobanking agreements, ‘are a joke’. Biobanking allows like-for-like fauna and flora to be removed and relocated elsewhere to make way for development. It’s a practice that is unsupported by environmental scientists and the NSW Greens. She said, ‘Can a unique human be offset? Of course not! Then why
Mia Armitage
Dave Underwood and Brian Earley performed in a Byron ‘Kombi Konga’ up the new bypass as the new road was opened on Saturday. So far, morning traffic appears to have eased. Photo Jeff ‘Kombiapocalypse’ Dawson do we think endangered species can simply be replaced by something else, somewhere else? ‘We know that environmentally sensitive wetlands and more than 100 critically endangered Mitchell’s rainforest snails, as well as a peaceful heritage neighbourhood were all sacrificed for a new road and bypass. Was it worth it?’ ‘So often, we look at individual instances of the destruction of biodiversity and say oh well, it’s only 100 snails. But who watches for the total impacts of the death from a thousand cuts? The planet does, and the consequences for humans are dire, as we know, let alone for the thousands of species on track for extinction’. Meanwhile, the mayor spruiked Council’s largest ever infrastructure
Who is feeding North coast rough sleepers in news ▶ p8 Bruns? ▶ p4
project as more than just a new road. He said in a press release there are ‘three new roundabouts and almost two kilometres of new shared path and footpath’.
Largest ever project The project has been mired in cost blowouts, delays and poor governance from the start, with environmental issues and strong resident opposition, including court cases. Council staff admit the traffic is expected to be alleviated by around 20 per cent for the short term. Despite the lack of scientific support, Mr Franklin and Cr Richardson claimed positive environmental outcomes from biobanking agreements. Mr Franklin said, ‘While 1.5 hectares of vegetation was impacted to
Margo Kingston offers a positive from all the Morrison toxicity ▶ p10
ZŽůůŝŶŐ ŽŶ ^ƵŶƐŚŝŶĞ͊
construct stage two of the project, an additional 44.5 hectares of similar vegetation is now protected in perpetuity as a result of two approved biobanking agreements at Lilli Pilli and Wallum Place’. Cr Richardson added Council had ‘invested $81,700 towards the regeneration of 17.5 hectares of potential Mitchell’s rainforest snail habitat at Sunrise Boulevard Bushland, Butler Street Reserve and Midgen Swamp Reserve in Suffolk Park’. Additional environmental outcomes, according to Council, were ‘10,068 new shrubs and trees planted, 900 metres of new fauna protection fencing, installation of a fauna underpass and 840 metres of bioswales to filter pollutants from stormwater runoff into the wetlands’.
These women mean business ▶ p14
Magistrate Michael Dakin, a former police officer, has ordered a common assault charge against a former Byron-based policeman be dropped after an altercation involving a naked youth in Byron Bay three years ago. The family is considering further legal action over the case and both the boy and his mother are reportedly suffering post-traumatic stress disorder (PSTD). During proceedings, the Department of Public Prosecutions [DPP] argued Senior Constable Michial Luke Greenhalgh had entered a state of ‘red mist’ when he struck the boy, who he says he didn’t realise was sixteen, a final six times with his baton. Prosecutor Brittany Parker said ‘red mist’ was a state of frustration that could manifest suddenly in a sufferer focussing excessively on a particular target and exercising poor judgment. Video footage of the altercation between the boy, who can’t be named for legal reasons, and four ▶ Continued on page 2
Michial Luke Greenhalgh leaves Lismore court last week.
In case you hadn’t noticed, Murwillumbah is marvellous! ▶ p23
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dĞƐƚ ƌŝǀĞ dŽĚĂLJ
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tŚĂƚ ĂƌĞ zŽƵ tĂŝƚŝŶŐ &Žƌ͍
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