Our next target remains 500! The decision makers will be watching our petition closely. We don’t want more alcohol served. We want the current issues related to the Byron CBD funded and fixed now. Lack of security, poor lighting, excessive noise, little or no public transport late in the evening etc.
545 is also the huge number of older teens and young adults who will be dumped on the street at around 1am - 2am, to somehow find a safe way home when the new and improved Cheeky Monkey development is opened by Justin Hemmes and Co. The original venue was approved for only 180 patrons. What could go wrong? That’s only one new proposed venue.
Byron Shire also has a YOUR SAY site open til 9th September. There is still time to express your concerns with the SEP and especially with more venues proposed to be serving alcohol after 12am.
https://www.byron.nsw.gov.au/Council/Report-Requests-Feedback/Your-Say
Please keep sharing our petition!! For those who have newly signed, thanks!! Please reach out and share the petition with other family members and mates who care about our community like we do. If you can take the time to share the link to Facebook and Instagram friends, it would be very much appreciated. Maybe if you are local, share with your school P&C who might also promote the petition. It’s our older teens who are most at risk.
I do ask again if you can all think about one or two more people or more who would sign and support our petition it would easily help double the signatures in a couple of days and how the Change.org algorithm works, the petition gets circulated ever further afield and helps gain petition external support so please consider sharing again to other friends, colleagues and family.
The Echo / Aslan Shand has promoted the petition in this week’s ECHO and thanks for that. The Coorabell Hall Association will be doing similar in the upcoming monthly newsletter. It’s a huge issue for the CBD community but also for outlying communities who want their kids that travel in and out of Byron to enjoy time out to be safe in town and whilst driving home. I hope to chat further on local ABC on a show this week, fingers crossed.
For information for the newly signed, I submitted an edited version of the petition to Minister John Graham, the Minister for Roads, the Arts, Music, the Night-time Economy, Jobs, and Tourism. I will do the same with the NSW Roads Minister shortly. The key decision makers are now well and truly aware of the situation and the community concerns.
Reach out to me if you have any further ideas to promote the petition. I will update further our supporters in a few days, so til then, stay positive, keep well and stay safe.
I’m not 100% certain donating to Change.org via the petition helps us all that much. The donations seem to show minimal new signatures from the random spreading of the petition to external patrons on the website. Every bit helps but a personal call in the end. We are contemplating running a small weekly advert in the Echo with the petition QR code but that’s yet to be decided. If a supporter would like to fund an initiative like that directly…please reach out.
Cheers,
Anthony Stante
tonystante@hotmail.com