MCAG AT BYRON SHIRE COUNCIL MEETING 14.2.08

Today Deborah addressed the meeting of Byron Shire Council. She was granted “public access” by special dispensation by the Mayor, Jan Barham in view of the urgency of our request, and the “urgency motion” tabled by Cr Tom Tabart regarding the purchase of the Telstra site, Station Street, coming up for auction next week.

The main points Deborah made requested BSC to support us in having the Telstra site returned to community: it was State Rail land, then Telstra bought it and now it may be sold by auction into private ownership.
a) ask Telstra to donate the site back to community for a token amount; a precedent was set for this when Northpower sold their building to the community for $1 some years ago, and this is now used by ACE.
b) ask Telstra to sell BSC the land for the price they paid for it, or a nominal amount.
c) Ask Telstra to delay the auction to allow council time to consider the purchase of the land.

Deborah told Council that MCAG had had three public meetings in the last 3 weeks and these ideas had emerged for the site:
1) Mullumbimby gateway, information and community gathering space
2) Permanent farmer’s market site, or community market such as the one at Eumundy which operates twice a week, with about 50 stalls, and attracts
many people to the town.
3) community gardens
4) playground
5) emergency house
6) housing for the elderly
7) extra space for Neighbourhood Centre to provide lunches and soup kitchen: their facilities are inadequate for the growing demand
8) youth facilities eg basketball court
9) parking
10) daycare for the elderly

Council resolved as follows:

1. That an approach be made to Telstra requesting that the sale date for their depot land … be delayed until after the council’s meeting on 28 February to allow Council to consider the possible purchase.

2. That Council receive a late confidential report to the meeting of 21 February on the possibility of purchase and identification of funds.

That Council contact the owners advising them of the possibility of contamination of the site. (Director of Planning, Development and Environment Services, Ray Darney, informed the meeting of possible contamination of the site).

Councillors who were in favour of looking to purchase this site were: Crs Tabart, Lazarus, Staples and Mayor Jan Barham. Those against: Crs Tucker, Mangleson and Kestle. Crs not present were: Westheimer, Tardiff and (I think) Cr Woods.

I am happy with this outcome. The Councillors debated the motion for an hour, and I appreciate their attention to our proposal.