Ballina Shire Council. Photo David Lowe.
Ballina Shire councillors managed to cover a lot of territory at their last meeting, which finished before a very late lunch.
Farmers market expansion
An expansion request for Ballina Farmers Market was approved at Commemoration Park, in spite of councillors expressing some concerns about parking. Following will be a DA, likely to request a doubling of the market size to sixty stalls. Ballina Deputy Mayor Sharon Cadwallader. Photo David Lowe.
Deputy Mayor Sharon Cadwallader said, ‘When you’ve got something like this the community is really responding to, I am very happy to support.’ Cr Eoin Johnston opposed the motion, but was overruled.
Could paid parking be on the cards for Lennox Head?
Yesterday’s Ballina Shire Council meeting saw councillors raise the spectre of paid parking at Lennox Head, and possibly elsewhere in the shire.
During a discussion about fees and charges, Cr Nathan Willis began musing on the lack of prospective earnings for the future, despite all the extra ratepayers flooding into Ballina and surrounds. Was it time to consider a report looking at the possibility pay parking in Lennox Head, he wondered?
After a few nervous moments, Cr Eoin Johnston said he would second this. ‘Very brave!’ responded Mayor David Wright.
Michael McFarlane from Huskee outside Seed and Husk in Lennox Head. Photo David Lowe.
An exciting initiative to keep coffee cups out of landfill launched in Lennox Head yesterday. Ballina Shire Council is backing the HuskeeSwap program with free coffees at different cafes in Lennox this week, for coffeeholics keen to try a new solution to a growing problem.
Ballina’s Waste Education Officer Samala Heart told
The Echo, ‘Today kickstarts our HuskeeSwap launch week. Council is paying for free coffee for the first fifty coffees for each cafe which is participating in the HuskeeSwap program.
‘We have five cafes on board so far, and what that means is people can either purchase or use their existing Huskee cup, and continue to swap it at any of the participating cafes,’ she said.
Flags fly over Ballina Shire Council. Photo David Lowe.
Cr Meehan said he was ‘completely unhappy’ with the date of Australia Day, noting that his opinion had ‘morphed’ over the years.
He said it’s now clear that the time has come for our nation to ‘seriously embrace’ the change to a date that is comfortable and acceptable for the whole community.
At the end of the meeting, Cr Meehan’s motion to write to the PM and begin a national dialogue to find a new date was supported by Cr Nathan Willis.
Not a happy date
Cr Meehan said that while it was great to acknowledge community achievers, and the holiday provided an opportunity for people to get out and about celebrating their country, ‘we do know that for a very large section of our indigenous community, this is not a happy day.’
Ballina Shire Council met for its first meeting of 2021 today, with the Dunoon Dam at the top of the list for discussion.
Deputy Mayor Sharon Cadwallader asked councillors to side with her and send a clear message to Rous County Council, asking it to continue its investigations into the dam.
The motion was passed, with 6 of the 10 councillors voting yes.
“I’m hoping that councillors at Rous County Council will see the merit of continuing on with the studies,” Deputy Mayor of Ballina Shire Council and Rous County Councillor, Sharon Cadwallader, said.
Chair of Rous County Council, Keith Williams, was one of the 4 councillors that voted against the motion.