Hi everyone,

A critical moment for Byron Shire is just days away. This Thursday, 27 November, Councillors will vote on whether to advance the Special Entertainment Precinct (SEP) Trial to the next stage of public consultation.

The full Council meeting agenda — including the SEP report and all appendices — is available here:

Council Meeting Agenda and Associated Reports

What a YES Vote on Thursday Means

If Councillors vote YES, the SEP documents will be released and put on public display for another round of “community engagement” in December–January — a period when many residents are away or occupied with holiday commitments. Community response submissions would likely be collated in February, with a final Council vote on whether to run the SEP trial around March 2026.

It’s concerning to all of us that this next stage is being considered despite overwhelming community opposition.

Our petition currently holds 1,200+ local residents and visitors saying NO to a late-night SEP, compared with only ~220 YES. That’s more than 5 to 1 against proceeding with a Night-Time SEP. One would say it’s a mandate to STOP.

Urgent: Word Around the Community

We are hearing from multiple community sources that most Councillors may already be leaning toward voting YES on Thursday to proceed to public exhibition. If this is accurate, it becomes critical that residents act before the meeting.

Please review the SEP reports yourself and check whether the issues you raised during earlier community engagement sessions have been included. If your concerns are missing, downplayed, or inaccurately represented, you have every right to inform Councillors and the Mayor that the consultation process has been flawed.

The Reports Do Not Provide Certainty on Trading Hours

Council’s SEP report implies that venues will not be able to extend liquor trading hours under a SEP. However, the various underlying pieces of legislation are complex, layered, and involve multiple agencies and licensing pathways.

Council cannot guarantee that venues won’t seek or obtain later trading hours through SEP-related mechanisms. Where uncertainty exists, the SEP process should not continue.

We Don’t Need a SEP to Fix What’s Broken

Byron Shire already has access to substantial State funding programs to improve safety, governance, security, transport and venue support without adopting a Special Entertainment Precinct. Being the second biggest tourism cash cow for the State after Sydney, these funds should flow more freely than they do. Council needs to be better at demanding a fair share of the revenue generated by tourism in our area. Levels of tourism that already put strain on our local economy and pressure on scarce first responder, emergency and Council resources. Jumping on a SEP bandwagon not suited to our town to fix our issues whilst simultaneously putting more strain on existing resources and local residents is an approach which is ill conceived and grossly unfair to locals especially those who live immediately adjacent to the proposed precinct.

Before expanding late-night activity, we must demonstrate that we can safely manage current levels. Walk before we run. Fix what’s broken before inviting more evening and late-night pressure into an already strained system.

Fun Fact on Noise Amenity

Planning NSW has recognised in the last 3-4 years that large infrastructure construction projects funded by the State such as Metros and Motorways can have a significant noise amenity impact on local residents when noisy works are carried out in the evening and late at night. Sometimes this work can only be carried out at night due to traffic lane closures being needed and cannot be done during the day. Planning NSW has recognised the concern of locals with respect to disturbed sleep and have imposed strict conditions on the works which help to some extent to mitigate amenity concerns for locals. Works can only be carried out for two consecutive nights, no more than three nights per week and no more than 10 nights per month.

This modern progressive planning conditions recognise that locals need respite to try to maintain their quality of life and personal health. Surely the music industry needs to move to these modern planning considerations and peel back amenity impacts, not impose more noise amenity pain on long suffering locals through an ill-conceived SEP. Please help point out this fun fact to State decision makers.

A Missing Piece: Hinterland Road Safety

The SEP reports acknowledge gaps in late-night transport and the need for an improved bus strategy — but they completely ignore the dangerous reality for the many residents, visitors and hospitality workers who must still drive home in the evening or after midnight.

This includes designated drivers, hospitality and shift workers from villages like Goonengerry, Federal, Upper Wilsons Creek, Rosebank, Coorabell, Repentance Creek and others — many living in outlying villages due to housing affordability.

They already navigate unsafe, unlit, winding roads with zero delineation, narrow shoulders, steep drop-offs and deep rutted road edges. These routes are unsafe for proposed night-time bus operations so risks of road trauma for tired and fatigued drivers will remain. I have demanded that these current and real road safety risks associated with the existing  late night economy are urgently addressed but this point has been conveniently missed in the community consultation and submissions report.

This significant issue was raised in my formal SEP submission yet is absent from the report. Where is the transparency of the consultation? If an existing significant safety risk of this scale is missing, what else has been overlooked?

I raised this point at the TIAC meeting this week which included Crs Ndiaye, Dods, Pugh and Haugh. My request was that this “missing” is noted at this week’s meeting. I doubt that will occur. I did demand though that Independent Road Safety Audits be undertaken on key village connector roads to clearly show the extent of disrepair and level of road safety risk for locals at night. I hope the audits when undertaken will lead to progressive funding and improvement in the outer road network.

Your Voice This Week Is Crucial

We strongly encourage all supporters to contact the Mayor and Councillors — respectfully, constructively, and firmly — before Thursday.

Share your concerns, lived experience, request to halt and reset the process, or your observation that the consultation process was not transparent and did not reflect the broader community views.

Contact options:
• Councillor Email & Phone details can be found on the Council website or on this link where further SEP information can be located:

Byron Councillor Contact Details

People of Byron Link
• Facebook Councillor pages or DM

• Attend the Ordinary Meeting — 3pm this Thursday, Mullumbimby Council Chambers

Your presence matters. When Councillors see engaged residents in the room, it directly influences the conversation.

Final Push — Please Share the Petition

Please continue encouraging friends, neighbours, and colleagues to sign the petition. Every signature strengthens our community’s voice.

If the Vote is YES and Public Exhibition Proceeds

Regardless of the outcome this Thursday, the petition as it stands now will be formally presented to all Councillors before the meeting for their consideration.

If Councillors choose to proceed to public exhibition, we will keep the petition active throughout the entire exhibition / engagement period — likely until late February — when Council will again be required to assess community feedback and vote on whether to implement a SEP trial. During this period campaign leaders will continue to press Council and State decision makers.

Our community voice will remain strong, coordinated, and ready to hold decision-makers to account at every stage.

Thank you for staying engaged, speaking up, and standing together for a safer, more balanced, and more transparent future for Byron Shire.

Regards,

Anthony Stante