Dear OSCA Members and residents of Ocean Shores and district.
Ocean Shores District Planning Meeting.
Tuesday, August 21st 4pm To 5.30pm.
At The OS Gallery, next to Target..
The Ocean Shores Community Association (OSCA) has invited all candidates for the council elections to engage the communities of Ocean Shores, South Golden Beach, New Brighton, Billinudgel, and coastal north rural areas.
Meet the Candidates.
Date: Wednesday, September 5th.
Venue: Ocean Shores Community Centre, Rajah Rd..
Time: 6.30pm for 7pm start. .
Please come and let the candidates hear from a strong representation from our communities.
BEFORE we meet the candidates we wish to consult with you, our members and friends.
OSCA and many residents of Ocean Shores district are concerned and plan to let the candidates for the upcoming council elections know about the issues that have been ignored in our OS town and district for many years.
Community consultation to brief the candidates
Date: Tuesday, August 21st.
Time: 4pm.
Venue: OS Community Gallery, shop next to Target, Rajah Rd..
OSCA hopes to finalise a briefing paper which we will then send to the candidates. If you can’t come, please take the time to email us with your thoughts. We will pass these on to the candidates. Please let your neighbours and friends know about both of these meetings. The Tuesday meeting is not for the council candidates, but for residents.
The following items, listed below, were the main issues raised at the council community consultation meeting last year.
Do you endorse these as the issues to be given to the candidates?
Would you prefer other matters to be added?
Would you prefer any of these issues to be replaced by others?
- Ocean Shores district residents represent more than 20% of the population of Byron Shire. Ocean Shores is now the largest residential town in the shire. Yet the town is often left out of council planning, publications etc. Why? Include Ocean Shores in all future council planning and publications and give us a fair share of council expenditure.
- Roundhouse Site. Do not sell the Roundhouse site. Dedicate it for public use, for future use as a community run cultural and tourism site. Once the land is dedicated for public use, a management committee from the community can be appointed and grant funding sought.
- Sports Fields. OSCA supports the purchase of 80 acres of land at Billinudgel for use as sportsfields for the district.
- The State of Infrastructure in the Ocean Shores District – fix the potholes, commence a comprehensive timetable in Council’s management plan to repair our roads.
- Economic Development . Give Ocean Shores a fair share of council spending. Support small business. Include Ocean Shores in tourism planning.
- Transport. Light rail, bikeways/pathways, public transport.
Please contact us if you wish to discuss any of the above issues.
Jan 66801108 or Roger 66190308.
Regards
Jan, Roger, Dianne and Jason
Your OSCA Executive.
Please include the North Byron Shire Parklands Splendour devlopment on the agenda.
82% of PAC submissions were against this development. Although some on OSCA executive favour this development, and opposition in the community is strong, it should not be simply ignored as an issue. It is a major issue. Many in the north of the Shire are seriously concerned about the impact on our neighbourhoods and the environment.
I would like to emphasise some issues that are not mentioned in the list above, and primarily the need to allocate more public space in town to allow people get together, enhance their sense of community and generally improve their well-being.
Among things that are desperately needed and are excluded from the list above are:
– Walk and bike paths especially along the river
– Playgrounds! more locations and more facilities in each playground
– Picnic areas with BBQs
– Skating arena for youth to hang at
– any other facility that might encourage people to go out and meet face to face.
Thanks!
Orit.
I, too, would like to see North Byron Shire Parklands added to the agenda. Council will need to address a number of issues relating to the approval for a festival site on that property, and we need to know what prospective councillors think about those issues and what they are prepared to do to protect the residential amenity of the properties closest to that site.
Also, I urge the meeting committee to allow plenty of time for the general audience to ask their own questions of the candidates so that people who are not members of OSCA can ask questions pertinent to their interests. It is fine to have an agenda, but people will come to the meeting with more on their minds than what OSCA members have decided is important.
I think the New Brighton community would like to see the following items added to the list:
• Festival policy and in particular their position on the Splendour festival in regards to its approval, and their vision on how impacts from this festival on our communities may be mitigated through Council action
• Coastal zone policies – their position on planned retreat and beach management strategies in response to climate change.
• Stream flow management and flooding. Attitude on Readings wall removal, and flow restrictions in Marshalls creek.
Also a comment on the map on the site. There isn’t a surf lifesaving facility on the beach at New Brighton. I would also like to support Orit in her comments.
To clarify my earlier comment, I’d like to point out that people who live in New Brighton, South Golden Beach, North Ocean Shores, Billinudgel, etc., don’t think of themselves as being part of the “Ocean Shores district.” They think of themselves as living in separate villages in the north of Byron Shire, not in Ocean Shores. And each village has at least a few unique concerns that some may well want to raise at the meeting.