THE BYRON SHIRE Volume 27 #10 Tuesday, August 14, 2012 Mullumbimby 02 6684 1777 Byron Bay 02 6685 5222 Fax 02 6684 1719 editor@echo.net.au adcopy@echo.net.au www.echo.net.au 23,200 copies every week
Inside this week
Page 18
T R U T H I S A V I R U S A N D C O U R A G E I S C O N TA G I O U S
CAB AUDIT
Mayoral candidates Q&A – p7
Election letters – p14 to 16
Realtor Mark Cochrane Q&A – p49
The region’s biggest gig guide – p29
MP weighs into surf school’s tender case against Council Hans Lovejoy
The future of the Byron Bay Surf School is down to the wire after councillors failed to address whether additional licences could be granted for operators at last Thursday’s meeting. The Echo reported on July 31 that the Byron Bay Surf School’s tender application was pipped by a competitor who paid three times what other operators offered. The decision outraged owner/operator Jayme Edwards, who says price was the determining factor and his ten years of local knowledge and flawless safety record were ignored. He now claims his legal advice suggests the request-for-tender process may not even be legal. Currently there are only four commercial licences and two personalised surf instructor spots available for operators to teach surfing in Byron Shire.
MP Page urges review And now MP Don Page says he urges Council to review its decision, which no doubt adds pressure on staff and councillors to come clean
with its tender process. The tender panel that decided Mr Edwards’s fate is not publicly known; however, The Echo understands it to be made up of councillors, staff and members from the Headland Trust and the Marine Park Authority. Nor is the official score-card results publicly known for all submitted applications; however, The Echo has lodged GIPA (Government Information Public Access) application, which is yet to be responded to by Council. When contacted by The Echo to confirm his meeting with Mr Edwards, Mr Page told The Echo, ‘I did meet with Jayme last Friday and I think he presented a very credible case, especially given the criteria upon which the decision was supposed to be based. I would urge Council to revisit their decision as it appears the licence fee (money to Council) played a disproportionate part in the decision about who got the licence. ‘Other important criteria appear to have been downgraded or dismissed.’ Mr Page added he will raise the issue with Council when he receives Mr Edwards’s summarised argument.
Mandy Nolan on brazen hussies – p23
Byron Shire Council Notices Pages 46
Saving the mini whales too
And despite an external review of the tender process being called by Council’s acting manager Ray Darney, it remains unclear if there will be a tender suspension while external investigations are carried out. The winning bid was won by Mojosurf, and they will start operating in September unless Council act before then. Despite Council’s failure to table the tender issue, fellow Byron Bay surf school operators and elite surfing coach Steve Foreman showed support by addressing Council’s public access last Thursday.
Surf schools speak Mr Foreman spoke with bewilderment as to how his bid was also rejected despite operating since 2004 and a flawless 32 years’ track record. He said he helped with the careers of professionals such as Layne Beachley, while also coaching Indigenous kids. ‘We originally designed this policy with Rusty Miller,’ he said. Gary Morgan from Style Surfing suggested to the gallery that the tencontinued on page 3
Councillor hopefuls off and running Michael McDonald
Twenty-nine hopefuls have thrown their hats into the ring for the tough job of Byron Shire councillor, with only eight of them to be elected on September 8. Of the 2008–12 councillors only three are running again – Crs Diane Woods, Basil Cameron and Simon Richardson. Those retiring include long-serving councillors Ross Tucker (1991–2012), mayor Jan Barham (1999–2012), and Richard Staples
(1995–2012), along with Tom Tabart, Tony Heeson and Patrick Morrisey. Running for mayor are perennial candidate Jack Sugarman, Morgan, Crs Woods, Cameron, Richardson, and Sol Ibrahim, the CEO of Northern Rivers Childcare Services. Interestingly, Woods and Ibrahim are sharing the same media minder. The candidates for councillor are running in six groups. Richardson (The Greens, Group C) and Cameron (Our Sustainable Future, Group F) head the two political-party groups
while the groups describing themselves as independent are headed by Woods (Group A), Paul Spooner, general manager of the Byron Community Centre (Group B), Ibrahim (Group D), and transport advocate Karin Kolbe (Group E). Now that Barham and Tucker are out of the running, there is no obvious frontrunner for mayor, though Woods is the natural inheritor of the Tucker mantle and Richardson the Greens’. In the 2008 election Richardson picked
Whales Alive program director Olive Andrews with research assistant Ben Parangie and singer/songwriter Kyle Lionhart who is on the bill for next Sunday’s Whale Song fundraiser at the Hotel Great Northern. Story & Photo Eve Jeffery
This Sunday’s Whale Song fundraiser boasts an impressive line-up of musicians headed by internationally revered bluesman Ash Grunwald. The artists are putting their music where their mouths are in an effort to raise funds for whale research and continued on page 3 conservation programs in the Pacific.
Program director Olive Andrews says that money raised will directly benefit whales. ‘We are hoping to raise $10,000 at the event, which will support two research programs, one in Palau and the other in Niue as well as other areas in both Australia and New Zealand’. Artists include Jeff Lang, Paul Greene, M Jack Bee and Kyle Lionhart and will be MCd by Myf Warhurst.
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