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Tweed Council on monopoles, textile recycling and refugees News from across the North Coast online

www.echo.net.au Northern Rivers locals remember Las Balsas It’s almost fifty years since the balsa rafts of the Las Balsas Expedition arrived in Ballina, after crossing the Pacific from Ecuador on their extraordinary record-breaking voyage.

$17m apartment development in Kingscliff approved by Tweed Council A $17.4 million four-storey apartment development will be built close to the centre of Kingscliff under plans approved by Tweed Shire Council last week.

SCU enterprise agreement overturned by Fair Work Commission The Fair Work Commission has found that Southern Cross University misled staff in an effort to have an enterprise agreement approved.

Help support farmers affected by bushfires NSW Farmers has activated its natural disaster fund to accept cash donations to support farmers in Northern NSW affected by the recent bushfires.

Help NRAS help animals this Christmas Northern Rivers Animal Services says there’s no better way to give your holiday spirits a lift than to help some abandoned and surrendered furry friends while also being kind to the environment.

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Aslan Shand A range of issues for Tweed Shire were addressed at last week’s council meeting (October 26) from the lack of mobile and internet coverage at Pottsville to textile recycling and how best to welcome refugees. Lack of mobile and internet telecommunications in Pottsville has been an ongoing issue for the area, leaving people without EFTPOS in shops, or able to connect with family in emergencies. At the June 1, 2023 council meeting the construction of a new Telecommunications monopole tower in Pottsville was rejected by Tweed councillors. Highlighting the previous rejection of the monopole by Tweed Shire Council (TSC) a petition containing

Pottsville residents say patchy mobile and internet coverage is putting lives in danger. Photo Chris Newling www.tweed.nsw.gov.au 1,615 signatures, with 1,383 valid signatories, had been received by TSC on October 5 stating it was ‘Time for Better Phone & Internet Reception in Pottsville!’ Councillor Reece Byrnes (Labor) who was the ‘owner’ of the petition said that it was ‘time that this matter gets resolved. And we’re aware of course that the

provider has resubmitted the application, I think, today.’ Responding to the petition, Cr James Owen (Liberal) – who has commented multiple times that the staff should be allowed to get on with approving and rejecting development applications (DAs) with less interference from councillors, ‘because they are the professionals’,

Squabbling over ‘Team Cadwallader’ and ‘The Greens’ Ballina Shire Councillor Jeff Johnson has strongly criticised Mayor Sharon Cadwallader’s use of her casting vote on the issues of conservation zones and electoral boundaries. He says that at the last Ballina Council meeting the mayor used her casting vote to ‘kill off new land management initiatives aimed at improving conservation outcomes in the Ballina Shire’. This includes over 2300 hectares of wetlands, coastal areas, endangered ecological communities, forested areas, scenic escarpments and rural farming properties. ‘The council vote was 5-5 with all four Team Cadwallader councillors supporting

the radical decision to allow property owners to determine their own property zone through an “opt-in” concept that goes against the advice of senior council staff and the NSW Department of Planning and Environment (DPE),’ said Cr Johnson. ‘Team Cadwallader currently has four out of ten councillors, so they only need the support of one other councillor to make unilateral decisions,’ he said. ‘This isn’t the first time the mayor has used the casting vote to go against the advice of the professional staff. This approach to decision making tarnishes Ballina Council’s reputation and brings the organisation into disrepute.’

The mayor responded to The Echo using some equally piquant language. ‘It’s quite sad to see one of my fellow councillors attack our highly respected council and calling for it to be sacked, just because the Greens Party didn’t get their desired outcome on a couple of issues,’ she said. (Note: Jeff Johnson is not actually a Green, but an independent). ‘In my almost two decades serving on Ballina Shire Council, I’ve seen mayors use their casting votes many times, but I’ve never witnessed a councillor who didn’t get his way behaving in such a petulant manner and bringing the organisation he serves into such disrepute.’

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told the meeting that ‘in this case, they got it wrong’. However, Mayor Chris Cherry (Independent), who has family in the affected area, rejected Cr Owen’s assertion that the council staff had previously ‘got it wrong’ to recommend rejection of the pole. Cr Cherry said that the council’s ‘staff were acting in accordance with the legislation that’s required’ with the provision of their advice. She reminded the meeting that providing telecommunications was not the responsibility of the council but the responsibility of ‘telcos’ and that it was their responsibility ‘to provide proper service to Pottsville and the surrounding area’. Cr Cherry pointed out that previously the telcos had not submitted the required ‘ecological studies that are needed to allow the staff to recommend it for approval’. Councillor Dr Nola Firth (Greens) also pointed out that the pole needed to be moved approximately 18m so that it complied with the wetland protections. Cr Cherry said she had repeatedly met with the telcos to clarify how to move forward with the application. The site for the monopole is also subject to a caravan park application so ‘there’s a lot of things in play here,’ she said. ‘I’m very glad that they [the telcos] appear to be finally committed to taking some action on Pottsville because until today we had no application on the table. Council [were] powerless to do anything to change the outcome here. So I think it’s a positive step that they have finally submitted that review application.’ While Cr Cherry said the monopole would help in Pottsville she highlighted that it would not ‘solve all of Pottsville’s issues’.

All councillors noted the petition.

Textile waste Councillors Firth and Meredith Dennis (Independent) brought forward a Notice of Motion (NoM) to investigate a trial partnership with local charities and textile recycling services. Cr Firth highlighted that around 6,000kgs of textile waste goes to landfill every ten minutes in Australia and that much of this material contains plastic. Councillor Dennis highlighted that the local charity she works with ‘would have a minimum of 50 very large bags every week’ that are collected and likely go to landfill. The NoM was supported by all councillors (Cr Warren Polglase was absent).

Welcoming refugees to Tweed Cr Firth also moved the NoM that looked to provide welcome packs to refugees in the TSC area reminding councillors that in September 2015 the TSC had resolved ‘that council joins the initiative of the Refugee Council of Australia in making a declaration that Tweed be identified as a Refugee Welcome Zone.’ The official declaration was signed in October 2016. The proposal was brought forward at the request of the Tweed Welcomes Refugees group who are working with CRISP (Community Refugee Integration and Settlement Pilot is an Australianpartnered program) and is looking to assist in settling a refugee family in Tweed. ‘The program provides a year’s worth of support for a refugee family including accommodation, work, setting up services, etc,’ explained Cr Firth.

Volume 38 #22 • November 8, 2023 Established 1986 • 24,500 copies every week

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