THE BYRON SHIRE
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Volume 24 #12 Tuesday, August 25, 2009 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 21,000 copies every week
entertainment
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RELEASE THE INNER GRUMP
Mothers to protest
Small blocks spark big fears David Lovejoy
Many Mullumbimby residents have expressed misgivings about the 90 hectare development known as Tallowood Ridge Estate along Left Bank Road. The 31 lots of the first stage are extremely small, some only 600m2, and although the full development may consist of 200 lots there will be no master plan released. The fear is that piecemeal approval will set a precedent for tiny urban blocks to proliferate all through the building land available between Left Bank and Main Arm roads. Mullumbimby resident Sheryl Harper told The Echo, ‘Small urban blocks nearly three kilometres from the centre of a small town are totally inappropriate… Along the Tweed coast and in southeast Queensland there is a sea of metal roofs with barely room for a tree or a patch of greenery. It is ugly, inappropriate and environmentally unfriendly. Is this the sort of development we want to allow in our town?’ But developer Eric Freeman denies the lots are inappropriately small and maintains they are larger than required. He said on Monday that the lot size deliberately tests the provisions of the Mullumbimby Development Control Plan (DCP), which specifies that ten per cent of a greenfields development should consist 450-550m2 lots, in the interests of affordable housing. ‘Council also wanted to resume five per cent of the land to build housing itself,’ said Mr Freeman, ‘but state laws do not allow this to be enforced.’ Instead Mr Freeman said he plans to provide integrated house and land packages in stage three of his development. ‘Three bedroom homes on blocks 12x34m should sell for less than $400,000,’ he said. The planning instruments under which development takes place are sometimes contradictory. Despite the DCP, Ms Harper points out that the Mullumbimby Settlement Strategy 2003 ‘specifically states in relation to the area in question that it should comprise “larger lot
Victoria Cosford
An impromptu rally at Tuckeroo Avenue, Mullumbimby, on Saturday afternoon protests against the intensive development planned for Tallowood Ridge Estate. Photo Michael Rose
sizes to reflect country lifestyle”.’ Ms Harper said, ‘As you travel out along Left Bank Road, the higher density blocks currently stop at Tuckeroo Avenue and beyond that Maleuca and Brushbox Drives have lot sizes of around two acres or more. The proposed Tallowood development shares a ridge with these properties at the top
of Maleuca Drive, they are located on the very same hill! ‘What justification then can be given, other than the developer’s profit, for such a drastic reduction in the lot size literally a few metres from these existing developments?’ Mr Freeman says he is open to feedback from the community on his
plans and has arranged for a website (www.tallowoodridge.com.au) to go online shortly to facilitate comment. Public submissions on stage one of the development close on Friday (August 28) and these may be sent to council@byron.nsw.gov.au quoting 10.2009.314.1. ■ See letters, page 12.
How do you visualise Tweed Street? For the past three months consultants appointed by Byron Shire Council have been working with the Brunswick Heads community to develop a master plan for Tweed Street – the old Pacific Highway. The process has produced 40 maps, including 15 from Brunswick Heads Public School students. Malcom Price, from the consultants Social Habitat, said, ‘Overwhelmingly, responses have supported slowing traffic, narrowing the road, reintroducing trees and making better, safer provision for
pedestrians and bike riders.’ He said there was a clear indication that the central part of Tweed Street, between Booyun and Mullumbimbi Streets, should become a ‘marketplace’ linking it back to the commercial centre of town. Most proposals wanted to see the remainder of the road revert to a slow, leafy village street. A constantly updated storyboard on the project is on display at the Brunswick Heads Visitor Centre in Park Street. There will be a series of meetings
for people to comment on the draft plans. These currently include the Chamber of Commerce, Monday August 31, 6pm at the Brunswick Heads Bowling Club, and the Progress Association on Monday, September 7, 7pm at the Memorial Hall. Council agreed in 2008 to fund a Tweed Street master plan to guide the makeover. In May 2009 Social Habitat was engaged to begin the planning process. The proposed new look for Tweed Street will be presented to Council prior to going on public exhibition.
The hours and funding of community health nurses are being cut by the North Coast Area Health Service and local mothers are not happy. A group of them is organising a protest at the Bangalow Community Health Centre on Monday, August 31 at 10am. Saving the sanity of first-time mothers is only one function of community health nurses. Two full time nurses in the Byron Shire were, up until about a year ago, on hand to cater to the many needs of mothers in the area – but since cutbacks in their hours and in the funding available a lot of women are feeling very anxious. According to one of these women, Nicole Steel, there has been a dramatic increase in births in the Shire, averaging now around 366 a year, and she fails to comprehend why the reduced hours have not been reinstated. Along with shorter weeks for the two nurses has been an increase in their administrative and bureaucratic workload. Nicole, who gave birth to her first child six months ago, told The Echo that the previous ‘access to the two nurses made the women feel powerful and reassured.’ ‘I don’t know,’ she said, ‘where I would have been without them…they made everything feel all right.’ Through the antenatal and early childhood classes at the Bangalow Community Health Centre she was able to forge a valuable network of friends, women who shared her experience. ‘It’s a sad state of affairs’, declared Nicole, words echoed by another mother, Freyja Smith, who spoke about being ‘a first time mum with no clue about babies… these nurses have provided invaluable support to myself and numerous other mums in the Shire.’ A group of such mothers is organising the peaceful protest and any similarly affected parents are invited to attend.
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