Voice of Byron

VOICE of BYRON regular, Stephen Booth, explains why lack of transparency could lead to resignations at Byron Shire Council. 

Beginning his article, Stephen provides the definition of deceit. “The dictionary definition of deceit is: ‘the action or practice of deceiving someone by concealing or misrepresenting the truth’.

In today’s age of spin and disinformation, it is difficult to prove an office bearer has “lied”. The closest punters may get is to allege “deceit”. That said, in the eyes of many a person off the street – to intentionally seek to conceal or misrepresent the truth – usually by means of telling a selective part-truth – is for all intents and purposes the same thing – an act of lying. Nobody likes being lied to, and in Byron Shire, it is certain that plenty of residents have had enough.

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In response to community concern over recent traffic control changes along 7 Mile Beach Road, there has been and continues to be broad sweeping deception – by the ratepayer-elected Mayor, a green councillor side kick, and by Byron Shire Council staff. Whilst it is difficult to prove collusion between them, the web of deceit appears inseparable.

Deception 1: When questioned publicly over closure of parking at 7 mile beach, Mayor Richardson gave a long rant as to why the actions were taken, including who had been involved in the decisions. In fact, there is no public record available showing that bar a couple of residents of the road itself – that any of the agencies the Mayor cited had any knowledge of the actions Byron Shire Council was to take.

Deception 2. When Byron Shire Council staff were telephoned and asked how this all happened, they repeated that a group of agencies – the police, road residents, National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) and Byron Shire Council staff had all been involved in the decision making. As stated above, there is no public record of any of those agencies having any knowledge of Byron Shire Council actions. Two independent phone calls to NPWS for example – asking to explain – confirmed that NPWS had no knowledge of either the nature nor the timing of Byron Shire Council actions.

Deception 3. During further community discussion on social media where the same questions were asked – such as who asked for the changes, who made the decisions, where are the public records and why wasn’t the community consulted, Green Councillor Sarah Ndiaye repeated and further embellished on what the Mayor had said, including falsely stating both NPWS involvement and NPWS responsibility. When pressed for public records, Ndaiye directed people to a record of a Byron Shire Council traffic meeting in September 2017, that when read, in fact has nothing to do with the issue of closing the 7 mile beach car park. Sent on a wild goose chase….

Deception 4. Council staff have prepared a report for Councillors (and public) to debate on Thursday December 14. The names heading that report are Shannon Burt, Director Sustainable Environment and Economy and Phillip Holloway, Director Infrastructure Services

4A. Shannon Burt is on the record as saying there are up to 30 residents involved. It is a fact that there are 31 properties on the road. Burt’s comment is a half truth intended to imply ALL residents were involved in decisions made – resulting in the actions taken. There is however no record of that. Evidence currently indicates there are essentially only 3 players – one most central one.

4B. The report states actions taken ie boulders and signs at 7 mile were installed to stop people parking “in areas where they should not”. What it doesn’t say is that 3 of the areas where boulders were placed were in fact public carparks for 7 mile beach, and in the 4th public carpark signs erected make it illegal to stop. Consequently, the report does not follow in saying that by taking those actions, there is no longer public access to park anywhere at 7 mile beach. Needless to say, the report makes no reference to community backlash regarding the closure of parking at a public beach.

4C.The report states that as a result of meetings between the Mayor, Byron Shire Council staff, road residents, Police, NPWS and the Rural Fire Service, an action plan was developed. The Plan says there needs to be a budget, it needs community consultation, and it needs approval from Council. The report says none of those things has happened yet. More importantly, the Action Plan has 14 points – NONE of which make reference in any form to the actions actually taken by Council. If that part of the report is to be believed as correct – it proves everything on the public record stated by the Mayor, another councillor and various staff – in terms of their stating decisions were known / consulted on – to be a repetitive act of deceit.

4D. In relation to point 4C. Before documenting the Action Plan, the report states “In recent weeks following discussions with some of the local residents of Seven Mile Beach, Council installed a number of parking sign restrictions along the road and also placed large rocks at the end of Seven Mile Beach Road to deter and disrupt current behaviours of those visitors that park and camp in areas that they should not”. So, whilst there supposedly was an Action Plan (or at least there had been meetings to discuss options), somehow, someone from Byron Shire Council , unbeknown to anyone except a road resident or two, took actions no-one on record had discussed.

The questions that now must be answered are:
1. Who was involved in creating the Action Plan?
2. When was it created?
3. Who at Byron Shire Council had discussions with which road residents that lead to the current actions being taken?
4. Who decided what actions would be taken?
5. Who approved both the actions and its funding?
6. Who installed the signs and boulders?
7. Where were the funds drawn from?

Following that, the bigger questions that require answers are:
A. Why was this action taken in the way it has been?
B. Why all the deception to try to cover that up?
C. How do the ratepayers feel about these things?
D. What actions should be taken to hold the decision makers / councillors involved to account?

What is needed now is transparency. If through public presentation of documents what is written here can be proven to be incorrect – let it be proven not in words but by the record.

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