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‘We’ve started a group with regular weekly meetings in Mullum, and one of the main reasons is that no one is helping elderly women.’

‘People are getting so distressed.

‘Many are just going to sell their homes, as a frame, for a significant loss and move elsewhere.’

Local social worker, Julie Walker, confirmed Ms Fell’s comments, adding that the situation was causing great distress.

‘There’s [also] incredible frustration around the interactions with government organisations,’ Ms Walker says.

‘People are feeling really unsupported’.

‘The only time people felt heard was from the local grassroots organisations.’

She also said the upcoming anniversary of the floods was bringing up ‘significant trauma’.

‘The lack of certainty is also very distressing – people can only live in limbo for a certain period of time’.

Eve Jeffery

A new defibrillator and shark trauma response kit have been placed on the outside wall at Mrs Birdy Cafe in South Golden Beach, just north of Bruns.

The first aid kit can be accessed 24/7, and assist in blood loss prevention and resuscitation efforts in times of emergency.

‘SGB was the last coastal community in the Byron Shire to receive a defib’, says Marine Rescue Unit Commander, Jonathan Wilcock.

The equipment purchase and installation was a collaborative effort between the South Golden Beach/ New Brighton/Ocean Shores Community Resilience Team, Marine Rescue Brunswick

Paul Bibby

Around 70 protesters gathered at the site of a proposed mixed-use development in Suffolk Park last Friday as a compulsory conciliation conference was held ahead of a possible court battle over the plan.

Located next to the existing retail precinct on Clifford Street, the development proposes two new threestorey buildings incorporating seven townhouses, four units, 12 affordable housing units and 300 square metres of commercial space.

The original application for the development was knocked back by Byron

Heads Unit, Mrs Birdy Cafe, Shark Response Inc. and the Northern Rivers Community Foundation.

‘Owing to our location, it can sometimes take ambulances a while to arrive, and we can get cut off in times of flood’, says Bec McNaught, who co-leads the SGB/NB/OS Community Resilience Team.

‘This equipment can help first responders save lives so we saw it as a real priority for our community’.

Marine Rescue is encouraging people to register publicly accessible defibs on the Service NSW app.

A defib was put to use at a New Brighton Beach drowning recently, and is yet to be returned to the New Brighton shops.

As a consequence, there is no publicly accessible defib at New Brighton at the moment. Defib users are encouraged to return them to the venue they were retrieved from, or let the venue know where they are, so that the battery and pads can be replaced.

With the state election looming on March 25, the NSW Coalition government announced additional funding for councils across the Ballina electorate on Wednesday, ‘as part of the $500 million Regional and Local Roads Repair Program to fix more potholes’.

The press release reads, ‘Byron Shire Council will receive $1,110,667 to fix 609km of council owned roads’.

Nationals Minister for Regional Transport and Roads, Sam Farraway, said,

‘We also provided cash advances for emergency disaster funding to eligible councils and have diverted Transport for NSW road crews to help fix local roads’.

‘After we announced our initial $50 million injection to help fix potholes across regional NSW in November a number of councils sat down with me and asked for additional help and funding.

‘We listened, and managed to secure an additional $280 million for regional councils’.

Council, with Council setting out 17 separate reasons for refusal, including that the proposal was an overdevelopment, not in the public interest, and breached multiple local planning rules.

The developer, Sydneybased Denwol Suffolk Park Pty Ltd, has maintained that the development is appropriate for the location, and will provide much-needed affordable housing for the Shire.

They appealed Council’s refusal in the Land and Environment Court (LEC), triggering Friday’s compulsory conciliation conference.

Six local residents were granted leave to address LEC Commissioner, Tim Horton,

The Byron Shire Echo

Volume 37 #35•February 8, 2023

Established 1986•24,500 copies every week www.echo.net.au

Phone: 02 6684 1777

Editorial/news: editor@echo.net.au

Advertising: adcopy@echo.net.au

Office: Village Way, Stuart Street, Mullumbimby NSW 2482

General Manager Simon Haslam

Editor Hans Lovejoy

Deputy Editor Aslan Shand

Photographer Jeff Dawson

Advertising Manager Anna Coelho

Production Manager Ziggi Browning

The

Nicholas Shand 1948–1996

Founding Editor to elders past, present and future.

Disclaimer: The Echo is committed to providing a voice for our whole community. The views of advertisers, letter writers, and opinion writers are not necessarily those of the owners or staff of this publication.

‘The job of a newspaper is to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.’ – Finley Peter Dunne 1867–1936 at the conference, and they raised a range of concerns.

Lynne Richardson from the Suffolk Park Progress Association spoke about the contravention of regulations involved in the plan, and the issue of affordable housing.

‘The Suffolk Park Progress Association understands that the relevant legislation may allow some minor exceedances, but what is sought by the applicant goes beyond minor flexibility,’ Ms Richardson said.

‘It makes a mockery of the substantive legal intent of the overall planning concept for this area.’

Another local resident spoke about Suffolk Park from a historical perspective, focusing on the village’s low-rise character, and how the scale of the proposed development would affect this.

Another resident then talked about the traffic impacts of the plan, and then another addressed environmental concerns.

The protesters maintained a constant, but quiet, presence throughout the public section of the hearing.

People held the posters up on both sides of the street, and got support from passing traffic prior to the conference.

DOCTORS

Dr Anthony Solomon

Dr Rob Trigger

Dr Bettie Honey

Dr Meera Perumalpillai-McGarry

Dr Mann Ying Lim

Dr Javin Chee

Dr Elisa Gill

OSTEOPATHS

Paul Orrock Bimbi Gray

NATUROPATH

Mandy Hawkes

AUDIOLOGIST

Chris Adelaide