Byron Shire Council’s General Manager, Ken Gainger, said the 2016/17 Annual Report highlighted the operations of Council which go well beyond the traditional areas of rates, roads and rubbish.
Road reconstruction, recycling, flood recovery and roundabouts were significant projects delivered in the last financial year by Byron Shire Council.
“In 2016/17 we completed 10 major road reconstruction projects and resealed a total of 13.5km of road but we also made significant improvements in areas like our recycling operations,” Mr Gainger said.
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“Byron Shire Council has a commitment to improving recycling so to see that we collected 200kg of phones, batteries and light bulbs was fantastic,” he said.
“We opened the new North Ocean Shores sports field which is a great space for residents in the north of the Shire.
“Ex-Tropical Cyclone Debbie had a severe impact on parts of our community – Council lobbied hard for government support and was successful in its applications for natural disaster funding for the repair of Council infrastructure and Disaster Recovery funding for affected residents and businesses.
“We also developed the Rural Land Use Strategy, which has since been adopted by Council.
“This is an important document that tries to find the balance between development and preserving our villages and districts and our rich and beautiful farm land,” Mr Gainger said.
Byron Shire Council staff worked with the community to develop town and village masterplans for Byron Bay, Bangalow and Mullumbimby and Council also hosted an Affordable Housing summit to shine the light on an increasing challenge in the region.
“Our tourism industry is ever growing and we continue to grapple with how to provide infrastructure for around two million tourists,” Mr Gainger said.
“Pay parking is going some way to providing some revenue from tourists but Council continues to lobby the NSW Government for answers to this problem which is not going away.
“Council was awarded a special rate variation which allows us to invest specifically in infrastructure such as roads and bridges, areas which have been historically chronically underfunded.
“Our residents constantly tell us that they are tired of the poor condition of our roads and the special rate variation will see $40 million allocated to infrastructure spending in 2017/18.
“I am pleased to be able to report that in 2016/17 we met all of our financial targets set by the NSW Government and we completed 97% of our actions from our Operational Plan,” Mr Gainger said.
The Annual Report can be found on the Byron Shire Council’s website or click http://www.byron.nsw.gov.au/publications/annual-report-2016-2017.
For more information call Annie Lewis, Media and Communications Coordinator, on 6626 7320.
Byron Council is still the only Council in Australia that has minuted acceptance for increasing flooding in their Shire by ordering the closure of a Flood Outlet which was a condition of development consent for the massive Ocean Shores project despite warnings from from Government of their liability for acceptance of that liability. Funny how the Manager, Mayor their flood consultants and Councillors don’t mention that.
Asking how the weed steam cleaning is going because on driving into Brunswick Heads, weeds sure are having a ball, the world of weeds rampaging onward – both sides of the road, except for the round-a-bouts/ all whipper snipped and a question: where is the water for the weed killer steam taken from?
How many weed steam killers does Byron Council have? Jillian Spring