Program for the third annual
THE TWEED SHIRE Volume 1 #33 Thursday, April 23, 2009 Advertising and news enquiries: Phone: (02) 6672 2280 Fax: (02) 6672 4933 editor@tweedecho.com.au adcopy@tweedecho.com.au www.tweedecho.com.au
Byron Underwater Festival in this week’s Coastal Spirit
Pages 10 & 11
LOCAL & INDEPENDENT
Marcia backs hands-on land repair
Hastings Point protection plan locked in Ken Sapwell
Green Corps team leader Bill Cortizo takes a well earned break, as do friends of the Byangum Riverbank Project Druen Pidgeon and Jachai Mortimer and a couple of the crew. Roxanne Millar
When Marcia Pidgeon decided to clean up a local swimming spot, she never dreamed her efforts would spark a major community clean-up project that has been running for almost eight years. The Byangum resident is responsible for spearheading the clean up and restoration of an 800m stretch of riverside land along Kyogle Road, two kilometres south of Byangum Bridge. The longterm project has seen its volunteer numbers go through cycles of growth and decline and its organising team is currently appealing for more environmentally-minded types to donate their time to save the stretch of land. “I have always felt the beauty of the area and in 2001 I saw an opportunity
to do something with the riverbank, which had cows on it for 60 years,’ Marcia said. ‘My heart was in it and I felt I just had to protect it. I felt passionate enough to cop the controversy, principally from the farmers who ran their cows on it.’ Marcia enrolled in TAFE to learn about land conservation, applied for grants to fund plantings and motivated the local community and Greencorp groups to help out. After about 12 months the Tweed Riverbank project was up and running and during its height was embraced by TAFE students who undertook practical courses on site and school students who planted trees by the riverbank. It has been a major project pursued and endorsed by the Friends of Wollumbin Landcare group and is
still the baby of a core group of 12 volunteers. ‘It has been a real community achievement. What made me most happy was seeing the children down there getting involved and passionate about the environment,’ she said. ‘I am sad they haven’t come back. I’d love to get the schools involved again.’ The project has hit one of its hardest obstacles – restoration of a particularly overgrown section, which Marcia said is the most neglected area yet. She said people willing to donate their time were wanted for clean up work on the first Saturday of each month down at the site for a few hours. For more details call 02 6679 5879 or Marcia on 02 6672 8146.
People power came up trumps this week when Tweed Shire Council imposed new planning controls to protect Hastings Point’s village character from over-development. Residents who packed the public gallery cheered and clapped after the council voted 4-3 to bring in a two-storey height control and reduce building densities throughout the entire village in line with a consultant’s findings. The decision brings an end to more than 10 years of delays and backflips which until now had thwarted a campaign by residents to stop a development onslaught they believe is slowly killing off their creeks. Residents’ association spokesman John O’Reilly paid tribute to the new council for having the guts to stand up to the development lobby which he said had tried to mislead councillors with a campaign of misinformation. Chief planner Vince Connell recommended the new planning controls which had been suggested by the council’s own consultants while his staff continued to work on a more detailed locality plan with residents, starting next month. Mr Connell said the council had received 218 submissions in favour of the planning changes and 63 against. People supporting the rezonings said they were urgently needed to stop creek siltation and acid-sulphate run-off and the cumulative impact of large scale buildings similar to a 262-
unit resort now under construction in the village. People objecting said the changes would lead to a fall in land values, economic activity and jobs and would pander to ‘minority groups who want a lifestyle and community based on stagnation, a dream of a world where nothing changes’. The council’s consultants, Ruker Urban Design, found that existing controls did not go far enough to protect the village’s unique character. The consultants, commissioned by the former administrators in a bid to end the wrangling, said in their report that the Tweed Coast’s smallest village ‘had a pristine natural environment and a low-scale built form’ with most buildings limited to one and two storeys. ‘It is imperative that planning for the settlement ensures that the coastal and natural assets which make it so unique are protected and enhanced,’ the report said. ‘Multi-dwelling building types need to be avoided until a locality plan has been developed which addresses the visual sensitivity of the settlement’s estuaries and the visual character of the settlement along the Coast Road. ‘Such buildings would only be suitable for Hastings Point subject to urban design site and building design controls within a locality plan.’ ‘Without these strategic measures multi-dwelling housing comprising three or more storeys and/or three or more dwellings are not suitable for Hastings Point’. ■ See also ‘Propaganda blitz’, page 2