Ballina Shire Council State of Play 2023: in performance sadly just like every other tier of government as year's end approaches

Ballina Shire Council 
 IMAGE: NBN News 19.06.23

Ballina Shire Local Government Area has an estimated resident population of approx. 46,850 men, women & children (.iD Community:demographic resources, 2022), with a population density of 96.47 persons per square km across its total area of 485.6 sq. km – give or take what the sea hasn’t taken at the last high tide.

It is ‘managed’ by a Council comprised of nine councillors elected to represent three wards and a popularly elected mayor. Bringing the mix of often competing interest to ten local politicians, as well as a non-political council administration and staff running at around 336 permanent full time, part time and temporary staff (excluding casual staff).

Ballina Shire Council is blessed or bedevilled by at least 11 standing committees, at least one reference group and. sits on at last glance 11 other regional organisations including Rous Water and the Northern Rivers Joint Organisation.

That works out to be one elected politician and administrative employee for every 135 Ballina residents/ratepayers, operating within an annual budget that doesn’t appear to fudge its numbers.

So, in 2023 the shire should be running like a well-oiled machine. However this is regional local government we are looking at and, it can be as dysfunctional as the other two tiers of government.

The Echo online newspaper discusses Ballina Shire Council....

30 October 2023

Ballina’s bouncing boundaries

Many people assume that in a civilised country like Australia, electoral boundaries are all taken care of by impartial officials, but in Ballina, it turns out councillors have some say in deciding their own ward boundaries within the shire.

As the local population changes, this has led to an ongoing kerfuffle, with the latest chapter occupying much of the latest Ballina Council meeting.

Defying staff suggestions, Cr Rod Bruem and his allies are continuing to push for a new boundary adjustment which they say is based on common sense geographical boundaries.

This includes moving North Ballina to A Ward, moving Cumbalum to A Ward, moving areas of Newrybar west of the motorway to C Ward, and moving areas of East Ballina (north and north-east of the Richmond River) to B Ward.

After the latest period of public consultation, there were a grand total of two submissions in support of this idea and 55 objections, for reasons including; perceived councillor disadvantage, too many people being impacted, little benefit, high cost, poor forward planning, perceived political interference, and the fact that there is greater variance between the population of wards under the Bruem approach than via the original staff proposal (flying in the face of the whole reason for boundary adjustments).

In the meeting, Cr Bruem blamed the ‘green left Echo newspaper’ for stoking misunderstandings about his proposal among the general public.

He said accusations from critics that his new boundaries amounted to gerrymandering were ridiculous and unfounded, later claiming that he was actually correcting earlier gerrymandering by the 2007 council. He described the current ward division in Ballina as being like the way Berlin was carved up during the Cold War.

Cr Bruem said that residents had tried to have him thrown out of the recent Cumbalum Residents Meeting (this is one of the main areas to be affected by the proposed change) and he had to be rescued by Cr Kiri Dicker.

Cr Bruem claimed he was simply acting based on electoral commission principles, and reducing confusion, by seeking to follow easy to understand geographical boundaries in his proposed ward boundary adjustments. If there were going to be unfortunate political ramifications for his opponents, such as Cr Jeff Johnson (Cr Bruem denied this), then that was nothing to do with him.

Cr Johnson called on councillors to follow their previous unanimous decision to accept staff-suggested ward boundaries back in February, as had already been supported by the electoral commission. He said Cr Bruem’s last minute change was ‘politically motivated’, and a waste of council resources and ratepayers’ money.

New low

He said the recent majority decision to proceed with the Bruem changes was ‘a new low for this council’ in his fifteen years there.

‘It may seem trivial, but I believe that for a councillor or a group of councillors to overturn a unanimous decision and to draw up a different electoral boundary is not the precedent that we want to set,’ said Cr Johnson.

‘It compromises this council as a whole. That is not why we’re here.’

He went on to say that far from simplifying things, the proposed changed would lead to greater confusion, as well as increasing the population differential between wards, from 4.85 per cent to 7.68 per cent, meaning the whole issue would likely have to be revisited again in the near future…..

In the end, Mayor Cadwallader again used her casting vote to decide the issue in Cr Bruem’s favour, with Crs Dicker, Johnson, Meehan, Chate and Johnston voting against.

27 October 2023

Fireworks over C Zone debate in Ballina

Yesterday’s Ballina Shire Council meeting saw accusations and insults hurled across the chamber as councillors split down the middle on the contentious issue of conservation zones.

The question boils down to whether rural landowners should be able to decide for themselves if there are C zones on their properties, (‘opting in’), or whether these areas should be identified in collaboration with council staff on the basis of evidence and negotiation, as part of the modernisation and integration of rural zones.

Progressive councillors brought on a rescission motion in an attempt to undo the previous (very tight) decision to support opt in C zones, noting that council staff and the Department of Planning and Environment have expressed concerns about Ballina Council’s direction on the issue.

Conservation or conservation zones?

There was a surprising deputation from koala activist Maria Matthes, who said, ‘I almost can’t believe that I am speaking against conservation zones, but this is about conservation and not conservation zones.’ She suggested that inconsistencies in the application of conservation zones risked alienating landholders, with potentially negative implications for wildlife corridors, especially when weedy areas are identified as holding conservation value.

‘I would like to see Ballina Council go back to where it should have been 11 years ago, with the new biodiversity strategy in hand, and bring landholders along for the biodiversity conservation journey,’ she said.

During the following debate, Cr Jeff Johnson said he’d seen some bad decisions on council over his last fifteen years, ‘but the proposal to make a major decision on property zoning classifications before the end of an extensive public consultation period, or reporting back to council, has to be one of the worst.’

He said the recent feedback from the state government indicated that the new approach failed every test. ‘I’m shocked at the way this final process has been hijacked; that proper process isn’t being allowed to be followed.’

Cr Johnson said council staff had already alleviated concerns about C zones from Cr Eva Ramsey and others, when they made it clear ‘that no existing farming practices or areas would be impacted, or would be proposed to be impacted by the zoning review.’…..

Mayor Cadwallader later defended her use of the casting vote [in favour of opt-in C Zones], declaring she was supporting the status quo and would ‘vote for common sense every day of the week.’…..

26 October 2023

Country mayors call for regional crime inquiry

Ballina Mayor Sharon Cadwallader will use a mayoral minute in today’s Ballina Shire Council meeting to call for a parliamentary inquiry into crime, law and order in regional NSW, in line with a recent report from the Country Mayors Association.

Supported by the Police Association of NSW, the report also calls for an increase in funding, to enhance front line policing in regional communities in need….

Mayor Sharon Cadwallader will this morning be asking her colleagues to endorse the recommendations of the Country Mayors Association report, and requesting member for Ballina Tamara Smith to consider supporting the establishment of a parliamentary inquiry into rural crime….

Mayor Sharon Cadwallader will this morning be asking her colleagues to endorse the recommendations of the Country Mayors Association report, and requesting member for Ballina Tamara Smith to consider supporting the establishment of a parliamentary inquiry into rural crime.

The first point of the mayoral motion of 26.10.23 was as follows:

That, Council calls on all members of the NSW Parliament to commit to bipartisan support to establish a Parliamentary Inquiry into and report on the rate of crime in all categories reported on by the Bureau of Crime Statistical and Research (BOCSAR) in Regional, Rural and Remote New South Wales, specifically focussing on the inequity between Metro and Regional Local Government areas.

Happy to provide busy work for the NSW Parliament in duplicating the detailed crime demographics produced by BOSCAR up to June 2023 covering every local government area in the state at both metro, regional and local level, Ballina Shire councillors found something they could all agree on.

FOR VOTE - All Councillors voted unanimously.

ABSENT. DID NOT VOTE - Cr Rodney Bruem

It seems that a number of Ballina Shire councillors are about to show an ugly side

 

Ballina Local Government Area covers 485.6 sq. kilometres with an estimated 46,760 local residents (ABS ERP 2022).

A conservative estimate is that 1,824 men, women & children in this local population are of Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander descent, with the majority being from First Nations family groups who have lived in the eastern Australia coastal zone since time immemorial.

There are many people living in Ballina today whose families have been birthing their babies and burying their dead in this local government area for tens of thousands of years and they don’t deserve either the level of cultural insensitivity or the false historical narrative of Australia Day celebrations being held on 26 January every year to commemorate the invasion of their country and the subjugation of their families, by an arrogant British Government on the other side of the globe.

However, some Ballina Shire councillors have tin ears and it seems a steely resolve to perpetuate the type of one-dimensional potted 'histories' sometimes found on the back of cereal boxes, lids of gift biscuit tins or sides of shopping bags.

A rescission motion has been put forward for consideration by Council in the Chamber on Thursday 23 June 2023 seeking to nullify Resolution 250523/17:

11.1 Rescission Motion - Australia Day Celebrations 

Councillor Cr Buchanan

Cr Ramsey

Cr Bruem

This is how the the situation is playing out in local media.....

The Echo, 20 June 2023:

Last month’s Ballina Council meeting saw a decision to move the Australia Day Awards and Citizenship Ceremony, to be held at Lennox Head Cultural Centre, from the controversial date of 26 January 2024, to the evening of 25 January. This amendment to an earlier motion was moved by Cr Simon Chate with the support of Cr Stephen McCarthy.

Two conservative councillors allied with Mayor Sharon Cadwallader, Nigel Buchanan and Eva Ramsey, were absent from the meeting when this decision was made. These two councillors, along with Cr Rod Bruem, have since announced that they intend to launch a motion of rescission at this week’s meeting, to return the local ceremony date to 26 January.

As Cr Simon Chate told The Echo, ‘The recission motion is likely to succeed as they have the numbers, with Cr Eoin Johnston and Mayor Cadwallader’s casting vote.

‘There has been strong emailed support from the community for the change of date to the more inclusive and welcoming 25th of January and only a handful of emails supporting the January 26 date,’ he said.

‘In my opinion, if this rescission motion is successful (and barring a miracle, it will be), this is a real lost opportunity for Ballina Council to show compassion and cultural sensitivity to the pain felt amongst many of our First Nations people and their supporters around the January 26 date.’

Simple gesture

According to Cr Chate, ‘Such a simple gesture, to move the awards ceremony forward by about 15 hours, would make our ceremony open, inclusive and welcoming. To rescind it would be narrow-minded and unkind.

‘At every meeting, we stop for an acknowledgement of country and for Council to move the ceremony back to the 26th of January seems dismissive and culturally insensitive.’

Cr Chate suggests that people who agree that the issue is important should contact their councillors. The rescission motion will be debated at this Thursday’s meeting in Ballina.

A win for Ballina Shire Council and its Local Environmental Plan

 

IMAGE: White v Ballina Shire Council [2021] NSWLEC 1468

Echo, 16 November 2021:

A new precedent has been set in the NSW Land and Environment Court (LEC) that could give property investors and developers a reason to rethink project designs.

It’s cost Ballina Shire ratepayers around $100,000 of the council’s budget to win the landmark case but independent councillor and Labor mayoral candidate Keith Williams says the benefits to the environment and for protecting local planning rules are priceless.

‘I actually trained as an environmental economist,’ Cr Williams told The Echo on Monday, ‘we tried to measure the environmental value of what we’re protecting by doing this stuff but it’s impossible to come up with the figure’.

Court decision proves council staff advice wrong

Ballina Shire councillors elected to take on the case against council staff advice.

But whereas certain Byron Shire Council candidates accuse staff of pursuing their own agendas and undermining elected representatives, Cr Williams chose to give the Ballina team the benefit of the doubt by emphasising how uncharted the legal waters of the local case were.

The Echo has so far been unable to contact the property owners in question, Jason and Joanne White, who last month appealed a council decision against their plans to build a new house on their rural block along Newrybar’s Old Byron Bay Road.

The block is part of a protected environmental area between one and two kilometres long on a ridgeline known as the Scenic Escarpment.

‘It’s a little bit of our 1987 local environment plan (LEP) that we’ve hung on to, because the state government won’t let us have environment zones,’ Cr Williams said.

‘So in Ballina, we actually decided that we wouldn’t adopt the new zones and we would leave a whole bunch of things as what’s called “deferred matters” in our new LEP,’ he said, ‘and so the old provisions for 1987 still apply’…..

The trouble with causeways

The main concern, and the focus of the case, was a driveway the Whites had illegally built in 2016.

The driveway included a causeway across a creek, effectively blocking it in some places, Cr Williams said, and made of compressed gravel that posed a threat to water quality as it eventually eroded and leaked silt.

Cr Williams said the driveway was also a threat to the rest of the rainforest because it could change the way water flowed and was absorbed during rain.

In the neighbouring Byron Shire, the council had, in recent years, started to shift away from causeways in favour of bridges owing to adverse environmental impacts on rivers and creeks.

But in Ballina, the council was so far powerless to have the Whites remove the driveway and causeway, despite successfully prosecuting them over the unauthorised project in an earlier court case.

The property owners received fines but the court failed to give deconstruction orders, Cr Williams said.

Walking the road to destruction

Instead, the Whites lodged a development application [DA] with the council to knock down their existing roadside house in favour of a new one nestled further back in the forest.

Council staff told councillors at the time they could vote only on the matter of the house and couldn’t take the illegal driveway into account because it had already been built and therefore wasn’t part of the DA, even though anyone living in or visiting the new house would presumably rely on the driveway to get there.

Councillors initially accepted the staff advice and approved the DA before carrying out a site visit and having second thoughts, Cr Williams said.

‘We went and walked the road, we went and walked down into this rainforest gully, and it was really the few of us standing there at once going, how can this be?’ Cr Williams said.

‘You know, that’s when we began to really question: is us approving this DA really approving this road?’

Councils on notice to stop ignoring unauthorised works in new Das

The councillors’ concerns inspired Cr Williams to declare a rescission motion against the DA’s approval that won majority council support and sparked another legal battle with the Whites.

Contrary to what council staff had advised, the LEC found that because the 2016 works weren’t authorised and never had been, councillors had to do the new DA assessment from the land’s pre-2016 status.

‘That’s a really clear instruction now to all the councillors and to all those councillors’ staff that where there is illegal works, that’s not your starting point,’ Cr Williams said.

‘Your starting point is actually what was the state before those illegal works were done and if those illegal works aren’t rectified by your DA, should you really be approving it?’

Two wrongs don’t make a right: Labor candidate tells developers they can’t ‘cover’ breaches later

Cr Williams said the LEC didn’t typically award costs but he believed the expensive case would ultimately save the council money as it was a preventative outcome.

Mr and Mrs White now owned a road that led to effectively nowhere and Cr Williams said one of the key criteria for determining whether or not they could build a new house on the block was whether or not there was already a suitable site elsewhere.

‘One of the foundational issues here is that there is because there’s already another house on the block,’ Cr Williams said.

‘I think the message is to developers that you need to work with us,’ the mayoral candidate told The Echo, ‘if you do the wrong thing we’re not just going to allow you to cover it up later on’.

Cr Williams praised the efforts of the Scenic Escarpment Protection Alliance, a group made up mostly of the Whites’ neighbours, and others who supported the council in court.

Lennox Head protects its community values as Australia enters the second year of the global COVID-19 pandemic

Lennox Head 2010 & 2014

The Guardian, 4 February 2021:

Hosting a world championship tour event is an opportunity most cities, let alone towns, would jump at – even bid large amounts of money for.

But the village of Lennox Head in the northern rivers region of New South Wales is quite happy to skip the glitz and glamour in the time of Covid.

It was offered the chance for surfing legends Kelly Slater, Tyler Wright, Carissa Moore, John John Florence, Gabriel Medina and Stephanie Gilmore to grace its waves as the location of one of four world tour contests.

With the world’s top surfers and a pool of over $1m, the competition holds the attention of hundreds of cameras, and with them, the global surfing community.

However, Lennox Head’s local council prioritised its own community’s concerns – not least among them the threat posed by Covid-19, lack of infrastructure and the fact that locals themselves would be prevented from surfing the waves over a period of 17 days.

An extraordinary meeting of the Ballina shire council was held on Wednesday, in which councillors voted eight to two against the World Surf League’s proposal to hold the tour this Easter.

“People were saying we’re in a bubble here. We’ve been Covid-free we don’t want that to change,” said the deputy mayor, Sharon Cadwallader.

“My concern will always be the pressure on our regional health system if there was an outbreak,” the state member for Ballina, Tamara Smith, told Echonetdaily.

According to Cadwallader, the community also had concerns about infrastructure.

“It’s like the new Byron [Bay]. Lennox is getting loved to death and we are really struggling to keep up with the infrastructure.”

Even without a world surfing competition, “when the surf’s up the cars are banked up”, she said.

Cadwallader said there was a strong showing of Lennox locals at the extraordinary meeting to oppose the proposal. “There were many people outside the chambers and as many as were physically allowed to occupy seats in the gallery of the council chambers.”

Surf magazine Stab reported that Lennox Head local, Nick Mercer, spoke inside the chamber and said that the decision to hold a contest against the community’s wishes could be met with a protest paddle-out by local surfers during the event.

The proposal to hold the competition at Lennox Head had come out of the blue. Mayor David Wright only heard from the CEO of the World Surf League, Andrew Stark, on Tuesday last week.......

Byron DA for largest coastal solar farm in NSW being progressed

Myocum district, Byron Shire

The Northern Star, 25 May 2019, p.8:

A solar farm flagged for Byron Shire would be the biggest of its kind east of the ranges in New South Wales, according to Byron Shire mayor Simon Richardson.

Cr Richardson said the “massive” five megawatt solar farm planned for land adjacent to the shire’s tip at Myocum would be a wise investment.

Coolamon Energy lodged a development application for the $6.5 million project last month, which proposes building the large-scale facility at Grays Lane, with the solar panels covering 6.3ha of the 73.53ha site.

At a meeting on Thursday councillors voted to spend $465,000 on a final feasibility study for the project.

Cr Richardson said the council had already done a lot of business modelling and cost-benefit analysis for the project.

In the DA, construction is estimated to take 12-14 weeks.

The applicant claimed the project would create jobs and help meet Byron Shire’s electricity demands.

"We don't have old buildings, we have old trees": the fight to save a 200 year-old Lennox Head fig tree continues

Echo NetDaily, 30 April 2018:

Ballina Council has offered a temporary reprieve for the 200 year old Moreton Bay fig tree in Castle Drive Lennox Head. Photo Jenny Grinlington.

Ballina’s Deputy Mayor, Keith Williams, has thanked locals campaigning to save a 200-year-old Fig Tree at Lennox Head.

He said community pressure had contributed to a rethink from the mayor that resulted in a last minute rescission motion to temporarily save the tree while further investigation is undertaken.

The motion signed by Mayor David Wright, Cr Williams and Cr Meehan calls an Extraordinary Meeting to consider further technical reports on the causes of cracking in an adjoining house.

‘A number of highly qualified arborists have written to Council urging further investigation of the tree roots and claiming that soil moisture issues under the house are a more likely source of the damage than the tree. This warrants further investigation, said Cr Williams.

‘This tree predates the arrival of European settlers in the area. Apart from items such as centuries old fish traps, these ancient trees are some of the most significant heritage items in the shire. They should be protected on that basis.’

‘I think all councillors are mindful of the fact that our insurer has accepted a claim for damage and denied future liability unless this tree is removed. But if that assessment is wrong, we should challenge it on behalf of our community’, said Cr Williams.

He told Echonetdaily it was ‘a difficult issue – we’ve been placed in a difficult position with our insurer. They don’t value heritage. This in my view this is a significant item of heritage – we don’t have old buildings, we have old trees.

While the date of the extraordinary meeting is still to be determined by the general manager, Cr Williams said he expects it to be ‘within next couple of weeks’.....

Ballina Council and sand miner behaving badly?

Echo NetDaily reported on 27 March 2017 that McGeary Bros Pty Ltd plan to extend its quarry operations:

Residents of Lennox Head and the Ballina Greens are opposing a proposal to create a new 3.2 million tonne sand mine on Newrybar Swamp Road, saying an existing mine in the area is already exceeding its extraction approvals and creating a blight on the coastal landscape.

The No Sand Mine for Lennox group said that following its investigation of the existing mine, Ballina Shire Council admitted that despite quarterly statements being submitted to the council clearly outlining the over extraction, council have not contacted the miners to discuss their over extraction, nor imposed any restrictions or fines.

Newrybar resident and Greens member Nathan questioned if the council was unwilling or unable to control the extraction rates of the existing mine, how would it manage the much larger site.

‘We would like to question whether council understands or is monitoring the impact on the very sensitive Newrybar Swamp and North Creek. The over extraction of 115,000 tonnes of material means that there has been about 115 million litres of water displaced,’ he told Echonetdaily.

‘The new mine is proposing a much, much larger sand mine for that same area,’ he added.

‘Locals are already concerned about the number of trucks on the road, whether environmental concerns are being monitored correctly as acid sulphate soil issues, water runoff, habitat loss and agricultural land loss.

‘Then there are the trucks, the noise, the damage to local infrastructure, safety and the fact the tab for any damage will have to be picked up by ratepayers.

‘So that’s what motivated us to have a bit of a look into it and check what’s happening with the current mine,’ he said.

Lennox Head resident and group spokesperson Amelia Hicks said that on council’s statements the group estimates ‘there have been 18,000 extra truck movements’ east and west on Ross Lane in 2016 ‘which equates to 62 additional truck movements per day’.

The Lennox Wave, 29 November 2016:

According to Planners North spokesperson Steve Connelly, ‘We submitted a basic application to the Department of Planning and Environment seeking Secretary’s Environmental Assessment Requirements (SEARs).

The Secretary of the Department consulted all relevant government departments then issued us with a very comprehensive set of Environmental Assessment Requirements. These SEARs must be addressed as part of the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the Development.

We are preparing the EIS, in association with an expert team of environmental, design and engineering consultants. The EIS must include comprehensive environmental management and monitoring measures.

That EIS, when it is completed, will be lodged with the with Council. The EIS will be publicly exhibited for at least 30 days. During this time, submissions will be invited from the public and Council consults with all the government agencies.’

As part of the EIS issues of soil, water, noise, biodiversity, transport, heritage, waste, public safety, visual impact, social and economic factors, and rehabilitation will all be addressed.

Meanwhile, Amelia Hicks is urging residents to stay alert and ready to take action on this issue. If you would like more information on the planned mine or would like to get involved you can contact her on amelia.hicks@me.com.

Transparent Local Government: Ballina Shire Council regularly does what Clarence Valley Council will not do

This is an excerpt from Ballina Shire Council's Ordinary Monthly Meeting agenda paper for 24 April 2014:

Note that the information is provided in open council so that it is available to the public, including local residents and ratepayers.

Ballina Shire Council appears to have been providing legal matters updates in open council since at least 2012 with no ill effect.

This is an excerpt from Clarence Valley Council's Corporate, Governance & Works Committee business paper for 14 October 2014:

Item 14.107/14 had a confidential report attached for councillors eyes only. 

From a question* asked at this committee meeting it was obvious that two legal matters** had either been vaguely outlined in the confidential report or omitted entirely. 

It seems that elected councillors are almost as deeply in the dark as local residents and ratepayers.

The difference in approach between Ballina Shire and Clarence Valley councils is striking.

* Clarence Valley Council audio live streams its ordinary monthly and committee meetings.
** Both legal matter cited in the question involved Clarence Valley Council being taken to court by the applicants.