THE BYRON SHIRE Volume 24 #41 Tuesday, March 23, 2010 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
NO BUSINESS LIKE SNOW BUSINESS
Marty wins silver at Whistler
Council back in court over Belongil Byron Shire Council finds itself back in court after Belongil landowners last week requested in the Land and Environment Court that Council be ordered to undertake work on existing geobag walls. The activity was prompted by the threat of increased sea swell from tropical cyclone Ului, which has been battering the Queensland coast. Council general manager Graeme Faulkner said the landowners were seeking orders that Council undertake additional works at Don and Border Streets in anticipation of possible increased sea swell due to the cyclone.
‘No funds or resources’
Marty Mayberry skis to silver in the standing downhill at Whistler. Photo courtesy the Australian Paralympic Committee. Eve Jeffery
The family, friends and fans of former Byron Bay local Marty Mayberry had reason to jump up and down last week when the athlete took the silver medal in the men’s downhill for standing class athletes at the Paralympic Games at Whistler, Canada. Marty delivered the run of his life in the men’s standing downhill to take Australia past its medal tally at the 2006 Torino Games with three days
of events to go. Mayberry, a double leg amputee, claimed Australia’s first and only silver medal at these Games, and its third medal in four days, one more than the team won in Torino four years ago. Mayberry had been in sensational downhill form leading into the Paralympic Games, winning gold and silver medals in the two Downhill races at the IPC World Cup finals earlier this month in Aspen, Colorado. He then arrived in Canada to set the
fastest time in the only official Downhill training session at Whistler Creekside in the week leading to the event and on a beautiful Whistler day in hard, fast conditions, the 24-year-old Sydney medical student became Australia’s newest Paralympic sensation. This is Mayberry’s first medal at his second Games and he is more than happy. ‘I’m actually pretty puffed,’ said Marty after the event. ‘It was tough – a little bumpy at the top but I pushed it the whole way down – I am so
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happy with that result. Downhill is pretty intimidating and I’m still pretty shocked. I can’t quite believe it, to tell you the truth.’ Australia had three top-10 finishes from the three competitors in the men’s downhill standing class – Mayberry with silver, Cameron RahlesRahbula from Victoria in fourth, just one tenth of a second from a medal, and Toby Kane also from NSW who came tenth. continued on page 2
‘The landowners were advised that unfortunately Council did not have available resources or funds but that Council did not object to the landowners doing sand nourishment works at the landowners’ cost,’ Mr Faulkner said in a press release. He said an approval had been given to the landowners for the sand nourishment works provided they were in accordance with the 2001 development application consent. Council issued a ‘roads act approval’ last week in order for the work to commence immediately. The approval allows landowners to undertake sand nourishment and requires that the sand is the same quality as specified by Council, reasonable care is taken to ensure public safety, and all works are carried out from behind the existing geobag wall. Despite the approval, the landowners reserved their rights to recover the costs of the sand nourishment works against the Council. The landowners’ Court application against Council has been held over for callover on April 1. Mr Faulkner said the Don and Border Street sites were surveyed in February and were found to be at or above the height required by the development consent.