Tom Tabart, Former Greens councillor
The letter from Louise Doran (24 March) has points that I as ‘the resident from Drysdale’ she addresses would have to agree with.
Yes the preselection of the current Greens councillors was hopelessly mismanaged and Byron has suffered the consequences of their being co-opted by Council staff, and lacking the knowledge and competence to break free.
This was largely owing to their own hubris but the control of Simon Richardson (whose party influence largely selected them) was a major factor.
Otherwise, I was saddened that Louise seeks to blame me and the Barham council for the loss of the Yelgun corridor to corporate greed. We fought long and hard against this development (check my letters in
On 14 January, 2015
The Echo comment ‘Railroaded’ quoted Don Page’s (Nationals then MP for Ballina) 2004 comments on the closure of the XPT train service on the Casino to Murwillumbah branch line after he’d done a massive backflip:
‘It (closure of the XPT service) is short sighted because the far north coast is a rapidly growing area and this infrastructure is central to our future. In future we will need more, not fewer, trains. We will need more commuter services and more tourist trains; we need to connect into the Queensland system. The removal of the service by the government will mean the line will fall into disrepair. That, in turn will mean all those opportunities will be lost to us’.
The Echo titled
A short history of our rail line debate is anything but. It’s full of personal assumptions, rumours, guestimates, and lacks any research or accuracy. (
Echo 13/1)
There’s no comparison with the slow, once a day XPT train service with a light commuter train service providing public transport for locals and six million tourists. They are very different, as are the costs and benefits, but the writer doesn’t bother with this vital fact.
The claim that the community was slow to react to the Casino to Murwillumbah (C-M) branch line’s closure, ‘probably because of the branch lines trifling impact’ is contrary to all the evidence and shows the writer has no idea what he’s talking about, or is being dishonest.