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Westheimer Swings / Greens Outnumbered On Splendour DA

In what was the climax to an emotional afternoon Byron Shire Council voted 5 to 4 to approve the hosting of a trial Splendour in the Grass festival at Yelgun in 2009. Dissenting votes were the Greens and Clr Lazarus. Councillor Peter Westheimer was considered to be the key vote needed for the application to be rejected and as the sitting progressed it became clear that he had changed his view. Councillor Westheimer stated that he had finally made up his mind on the issue during a visit to the site the day before. His reason for giving approval was that he considered the site to be severely degraded and that, in his opinion, it would be improved as a wildlife corridor by the regeneration work promised by the developers.

This opinion was in direct opposition to the views expressed by the Greens Councillors that the property’s proximity to the Billinudgel Nature Reserve and its value as part of a state significant wildlife corridor meant that it should be protected from this kind of large scale development.

The other councillors generally voted for the DA on the basis that firstly it had been recommended by council staff and secondly that since it was a trial event, positive and negative effects could be evaluated when the application came up for approval again next year.

The Green councillors again disagreed with this line of reasoning and thought that the amount of infrastructure that would be put in place for the trial event meant that the site would be permanently changed and that it would extremely difficult for the next council to reject a further application when large amounts of money had already been invested. They were also worried that a proper biodiversity impact study had not been done and would not be done until after the first event had been staged. “The damage will be done by then and there will be no going back” said Greens councillor Tom Tabart.

There were many supporters from both sides present in the room and debate was often interrupted by cheers and jeers. The issue has been a hard fought one with many community groups and individuals becoming involved over a protracted application process. Most of the supporters were in favour of the development because of it is a major cultural institution in the shire. Most of the opponents were against it either because of its effect on the environment or because of loss of social amenity in the northern parts of the shire.

 Many of the councillors said that it was one of the hardest decisions they had had to make during this term of council. The applicants had also given notice that they would be taking the matter to the Land and Environment Count if they did not get the decision they wanted. This further increased the pressure on councillors who are increasing sensitive to having their planning decision taken out of their hands by appeals to courts or the state planning minister.