The Ballina Shire Council has outsourced initial development of a Shaws Bay management plan to a locally based private consulting company.

The move comes as conversations continue across the country around the merits and risks of governments depleting public services in favour of hiring often expensive external agencies to do work in the public interest.

High profile consulting firms PWC and Deloitte are making headlines for all the wrong reasons, mostly around their exploitation of government information for commercial interests.

They are two of the so-called big four consulting firms to have received millions of dollars in public funds for years to do government work, as part of a trend that some commentators trace back to the era of John Howards prime ministership, while others say it was Gough Whitlam who first acted on scepticism towards public service department workers.

National politics and history aside, the consulting industry may well be thriving at a smaller scale thanks partly to local governments struggling to maintain staff.

Co...

The 197203 lot, a staged subdivision at 226 Invercauld Road, Goonellabah, called Eastwood Estate, has been rejected by the Land and Environment Court (L&EC).

This is an amazing outcome, it is a credit that Lismore City Council (LCC) councillors who twice voted to reject the development to have their decision upheld by the Court, Al Oshlack from the Indigenous Justice Advocacy Network told The Echo. 

The development application (DA) by McCloy Project Management to create 203 new residential lots and a residual open space lot and associated ten new roads, bulk earthworks, essential services (water, sewer, power & telecommunications), stormwater management facilities, landscaping and environmental rehabilitation was rejected by LCC on 26 July, 2022.

Ocea Curtis and Mia Baker from Byron High were the winning surfing team in the Junior Girls Ocean and Earth High School State Titles, held at Corrimal Beach at Wollongong on Dharawal Country. 

The High School State Titles saw 45 teams from 25 schools in NSW compete in a surfing teams event where two surfers worked together to score the highest combined heat totals.

The competition wrapped up yesterday (19 July) with four new schools returning home champions in the Senior and Junior Girls and Boys divisions.

A local flood-affected resident contacted The Echo around their disappointment that a request was denied by the NSW Labor government to have stamp duty waived on new purchases for flood victims who were saying yes to a buyback.

As previously reported, buyback offers made by the the Northern Rivers Reconstruction Corporation (NRRC) are at post-flood market rate, and there is little transparency around the appeals process. The NRRCs responsibilities were transferred to the NSW Reconstruction Authority on July 1.

The resident, who wished to remain anonymous said, At our most vulnerable time, when we need support now more than ever, not only are NRRC failing to aid the recovery process, but the NSW state government are also failing to read the room. 

They said the NSW Treasury Department replied, Unfortunately, under current legislation there is no discretion for the gover...

It all began with an Ugly Man competition! Thats right, in 1950, the Ugly Man Competition raised $1,221 towards the building of proper learn-to-swim facilities in Mullumbimby. 

According to Mullumbimby Happenings, by Reg Byrnes, many local male identities raised funds on the basis of three pence (2 cents) per vote. 

From there, it was a range of fundraising events and carnivals that eventually became the Chincogan Fiesta, including Matron of the Mountain, Queen competitions and Maid of the Mountain. 

First...

A $57.2 million mixed-use residential and retail development planned for the heart of Byron Bay is back on public exhibition, after the owners decided to modify their plans.

The Bohemian, a three-storey 7,093 square-metre structure proposed for land adjacent to the old Woolies site has drawn a mixed response from locals so far.

One unimpressed resident described the project, proposed for 90-96 Jonson Street, as Gold Coast lite, while another said it was a greedy undertaking.

The Development Application (DA) has already been approved by Council, but has recently been resubmitted with a number of significant modifications and is now on public exhibition. This includes reducing the number of proposed apartments from 54 to 44, and increasing the number of living and private open space areas.

The number of units may have shrunk, but The Bohemian remains a sizeable proposal, including basement car parking for 168 vehicles, ground floor retail and food premises with two levels of two-and three-bedroom apartments above.

The final ten residents had been told by Feros Care that they needed to be out of the Feros Village Byron Bay by yesterday, 18 July. Last night Feros residents, family members, and the community came together to hold a vigil at Marvel Hall to mark the day.   

The residents have been clear that they will not be moving out of their home and at 5pm yesterday Feros lawyers Minter Ellison advised the residents lawyer (and Byron Shire Councillor)...

World Environment Day Festival in Murwillumbah on Sunday once again proved hugely popular with a 20 per cent increase in people enjoying the day. 

It was busy the whole day, said event organiser Marion Riordan.

Evans Heads locals and other concerned members of the public form the Northern Rivers have raised concerns over Richmond Valley Councils (RVC) apparent lack of preparation to defend the controversial Iron Gates appeal currently underway in the Land and Environment Court (L&EC) in Sydney.

With the Independent Planning Commissions (IPC) report on Byrons holiday letting still sitting on the desk of NSW planning minister Paul Scully (Labor), The Echo asked when residents could expect a decision.

In early May, the IPCs report was released, which recommended a Shire-wide 60-day annual cap on unhosted holiday letting.

Mr Scully was in Lismore on July 11 as part of a ministerial visit around the flood funding debacle.

A couple of weeks ago, we received some initial advice from Byron Shire about what might be able to be done, were looking at that at the moment, Mr Scully said.

The minister said the recommendation from the IPC for a Shire-wide 60-day annual cap on unhosted holiday letting could run into some issues with respect of having to do large rezoning of areas that already exists.

Mr Scully said his department also had to contemplate existing use remits on properties.

The IPC, in hearings earlier this year, quizzed Byron Mayor Michael Lyon on why Council wasnt prosecuting property owners breaching development consent conditions related to affordable housing in second dwellings being replaced with holiday letting. Council has since announced it is investigating breaches and pursuing legal action where necessary.

Mr Scully said, Were working through some of those technical issues at the moment, the bottom line is though, in all of these areas, whether it be as a result, or contributed to by short-term rental, by flood, or by anything else, we have some acute housing pressures in the Northern Rivers that we have to deal with.

The post Technical issues stalling holiday cap decision appeared first on The Echo.

An experienced and well-regarded local architect has resigned from Councils Affordable Housing Committee and Place Planning Collective (PPC), claiming Byron Council is ignoring their input with the creation of affordable housing policies.

David Browns letter to Mayor Michael Lyon and Councils chief planner, Shannon Burt, also says the mayor is ignoring the community-led Mullum Masterplan by pushing for a car park to be built opposite Northern Rivers Auto Care on Argyle Street. 

This would compensate for the community losing a busy car park Council is planning, behind closed doors, an affordable housing project between the former Hoopers restaurant and Milk & Honey restaurant.

The mayor also wants to house Council staff there.

Mr Brown says, While I acknowledge the need for additional parking, the site was identified in the masterplan as a green entry to our town.

Cr Lyon was contacted for comment, but none was received by deadline.

The Echo put Mr Browns question to the mayor: Why cant Council put another deck on its own car pa...

A new exhibition at the Lismore Regional Gallery is set to explore fictional futures for Lismore in which creative minds imagine new modes of occupation for the flood-prone CBD.

Lismore Encore provides ideas for Lismore by esteemed architects and Lismore-based artists who have embodied knowledge and experience of the flood, all responding to a brief to design for the towns future.

The brief asked contributors to imagine Lismore into the future, outside of the politics of today. It asked participants to posit ways of re-occupying the existing CBD that not only deal with regular flooding, but to envisage what sort of governance, ownership, economies, and technologies enable these new ways of occupying.

The project is intended to create a forum for ideas, be they practical or so ambitious they might be difficult or even impossible to apply in the current climate. It asked for ingenuity at all scales, from the small intervention to the vast re-imagining.

Ideas include gentle golden dirigibles by America-based architect Virginia San Fratello, a new building typology that is simultaneously boat, building, and airship.

The dirigibles can be used at all times but are specifically there to serve as retreats before and during flooding. They are generatedwith AI and present an alternative vision for thinking about what we design and how we think about the infrastructure and buildings of our future cities, San Fratello writes.

South Korean architect Moon Hoon is also known internationally for his creative wayfinding and playful and distinctive design style, which fuses art and architecture.

His drawings or doodles have been acquired by MOMA in New York, Tchoban Foundation in Berlin, and the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Korea.

They manifest exaggerated creativity, opposing the monolithic and neutral world that holds us still and prohibits dreaming.

They are like a creative accelerant so far from familiar solutions that they inspire fresh vision and creativity. Moon Hoon has created roof pods that become shining escape beacons in times o...

The local community is rallying around a Cabarita dad and his family after he was critically injured in a car accident last week.

Ben Rohleder was driving home from a work event in Brisbane on July 13 when his car ran off the road just two kilometres from home.

The father of two, whose partner is pregnant with their third child, was rushed into surgery on arrival at hospital for a brain injury, multiple punctured organs, and a shattered pelvis.

It was a miracle he was alive emergency services said that too, family friend Alicia Hipwood said on a GoFundMe page that has been set up to support Ben and his family.

But our Ben is a fighter, fit and healthy and has far too much to live for.

His wife Courtney who received that dreaded knock at the door (no one ever wants to receive) in the middle of the night has been by his side (7 months pregnant) since, whilst family and friends are supporting their two young children at home.

We want to help this beautiful local Cabarita family by raising some much needed funds to help them through what will be a very challenging and rigorous rehabilitation with their newborn baby due very soon.

The GoFundMe campaign has already raised over $50,000 for the family [as of Tuesday morning] and other offers of in-kind support have been pouring in.

We are lucky in our community that when someone is in trouble we all come running to help, Ms Hipwood said.

Ben and Courtney would give you their own shirts off their backs if you needed it and we saw that first hand in the recent Caba floods with Courtney at home making food packs for people and Ben out there helping people with the mess and the delivery of food.

We want to help this beautiful local Cabarita family by raising some much needed funds to help them through what will be a very challenging and rigorous rehabilitation wit...

Councillor James Owen and Councillor Rhiannon Brinsmead have called on the NSW Government to continue funding the Back-to-School NSW Vouchers Program in its current form.

Cr Owen moved a Notice of Motion (NoM) at the 13 July council meeting, asking that the NSW Government continue to fund the programs to support Tweed Shire families.

The NSW Government has not yet committed to continuing the Back-to-School NSW Vouchers Program beyond the end of 2023, Councillor Brinsmead said.

The program provides 3 x $50 vouchers, totalling $150 for each eligible student and has really helped Tweed Shire families since it was launched.

The vouchers are essentially money in the pockets of families to put towards the cost of school uniforms, shoes, bags, technology, textbooks, and other eligible expense.

Cr Owen said that hundreds of Tweed Shire families had benefitted from the program, representing significant savings for them each year.

It seems like everything is getting more expensive at the moment and families are really struggling to pay the bills, he said.

Theres been a quiet changing of the guard at Ballina Fair Cinemas this month, with one family-owned business taking over from another, showing optimism for the future of big screen entertainment in the area after what was a tough time during COVID.

Ballina Fair Cinemas has been managed by locals Paul and Ella McGrath for almost 20 years. The new owners are Palace Cinemas, which operates another 24 cinemas around Australia, including in Byron Bay.

Mr McGrath told The Echo, Ella and I would like to thank everyone for their support, in particular our regulars over the last three and a half years. We would also like to thank the wonderful staff we have had over the last 20 years. We are very proud of what we achieved, and look forward to seeing everyone in the future.