Mod 4 - Extend Trial

I cant speak highly enough of the opportunity Parklands provides to the local area. The events they host are always of the highest quality bringing international artists to a regional area - along woth this comes massive amounts of tourism - the number one employer in our shire, without these events there would be a massive knock on effect of a negative impact on the local economy. The events provide large amounts of full-time and part-time employment which is great for a regional area. My family and I love the events at Parklands and the economic impact on the region is a massive positive. I look forward to the continued success of Parklands long into the future

I think the North Byron Parklands & events they hold are great for the local community in general

Splendour in the grass was integral in my companys early success when they favoured me (a local) to create all the new signage required at the NBP site. We now employ 6 local people & still get the opportunity to create signage for all their events.

I have known a lot of the different organisers for various sections of the Splendour events & year in & out they continue to keep it local and family like in their attitude to the local organisers/workers/suppliers.

I also think its vital for this area to have an avenue for young upcoming artists to be supported by & express their talents at a world renowned event.

These events provide a lot of well-needed jobs in the area whilst also supporting creative arts locally, nationally and internationally.
They also improve the reputation of the area as having a creative, forward-looking community.

I support the continuation of the events held at Parklands. I believe it is very professionally operated and provide an international quality venue for the arts in our region. I have visited the site when not in festival mode and have been very impressed by the attention and consideration paid to the natural environment on which it is situated.

Great for small business and jobs, as a small business owner in the region prior to to Splendour we would struggle through winter. Splendour helps bridge the gaps between Autumn and Summer

The North Byron Parklands has proven year after year to be an excellent location and with the continuous massive improvements being made to it, it will just be one of the best if not already the best venue for such amazing music festivals.

Ample space for camping, parking, shower facilities and events. Also, the continuous improvement of the roads and grounds have also make it a better experience ever year.

In a region that's becoming more popular and proximal to big cities, we need to make room for cultural hubs like Parklands. Infrastructure in dynamic communities isn't just limited to roads, rates and rubbish. Great communities are about the whole package and growing that package under a planned management model. Parklands have achieved this in the last 5 years. While natural beauty might be a driver for some tourism, it's not the only reason people choose to live in or visit Byron Shire. We are a social species that yearn to interact. This interaction runs down the line from great ideas to jobs, to lifestyle opportunities, to creative endeavours and social events that encourage community participation and human enjoyment. The most liveable, most tolerant and highly desired towns and cities in the world all share a collective trait where culture is embraced and shared in localised areas. Our need for social interaction also explains why there's not too many sane hermits squatting on those tiny Robinson Caruso islands that the Byron Bay anti-everything brigade call, 'Paradise'.

I support the great work done on the North Parklands site and the wonderfull contribution to a combined environment and social future.

I support the submission - the festivals held at the site bring a huge amount of revenue and jobs to all surrounding areas - not only Byron but also north to Cabarita/Pottsville/Kingscliff and beyond. The events are run professionally and improved annually to be a success and the operators should be permitted to continue.

I support the extension.

To whom it may concern:
We are local mobile coffee and catering service and have been involved with Splendour in the Grass and Falls Festival for several years now. We depend on these events as they provide us with a two major events in the local area, one of which is held during an otherwise very quiet time of the year for mobile caterers. These are extremely professionally run events, which are very important to us and our business. If the permit was not to be renewed it would be damaging for us as a local business, we would very much like to see it renewed.

Small business and general employment opportunities prosper in the region as a direct result of these events.

It will provide employment
is supportive of local art's culture
Is a successful event

The 2 events that this submission relates to are events that have been carefully formulated and perfected over several years and are a masterpiece of extremely talented people.

If the current venue loses all the benefits of hosting such well articulated events it would be fair to say that they would be irreplaceable.

These two events bring far more than patrons, artists, fun and music to the local community. Looking at it from the inside out and interacting with local small family operated business owners on different levels these events have become a reliable income stream that help family business owners make ends meet by paying for bills, rates, mortgages, wages, kids sporting activities etc.

The economic benefits and boosts these festivals bring to the local area help those families survive.

Other benefits include Tourist revenue to the local area, I must admit that I have travelled to the local area on approx. 7 occasions and spent a considerable amount of money during each visit, 6 out of those 7 visits where due to the fact that Falls and Splendour were on.

This is just one example of how much of a contribution these festivals actually make to the local economy and I am certain if one was to determine the true value of the free media that is generated for the area as a result of it being the venue of these festivals it would beg the question "where would those funds come from if it had to be paid for by the local community?".

These festival are a good thing for the local community.

NORTH BYRON PARKLANDS
I support the ongoing usage of North Byron Parklands as a major events venue. Its ability to attract large events like Splendour in the Grass draws huge numbers of people to the region, creating jobs and supporting local businesses.

Losing these events to venues elsewhere will have a massive impact on the local economy and community sense of self.

More please!

I have been to several events at The North Byron Parklands. These have been incredibly successful for the Byron region and have been run professionally in every sense. This facility is critical to our regions future creating jobs and business opportunities.

I support the extension of the trial period to allow the events site to continue to operate while the application for permanent operations is considered. The proponent has demonstrated a willingness and commitment to cooperate with authorities to ensure numerous safe and successful events already. The events clearly represent important economic stimuli for the local community, and a cultural outlet for certain sections of the community.

I object to the extension for Parklands for the following reasons:
- Parklands should apply locally for an extension if they want it, as stated in 2012: "Outdoor events following the trial period will require a further approval from the Council under Part 4 of the EP&A Act." (PAC Final Determination Report).

- Parklands trial period is not finished yet, let's see what Splendour 2017 brings. Then ask for an extension with Byron council.

- During festival times Parklands has ongoing problems with traffic, off-site impacts on residents' amenity, and noise has been an ongoing issue. Noise breaches were common early on, but after an increase in the noise limits was allowed (making compliance much easier) breaches still occurred. Also, the NSW Police recently submitted a report on Splendour 2016 to the DOP, raising concerns about on-site safety, emergency evacuation, and more.

- Allowing a lengthy extension in the face of so many problems cannot be justified and especially not BEFORE this year's Splendour.

- Parklands says an additional 20 months will give them time to monitor their performance further. They have had five years to monitor their performance, and the DOP has had five years to assess their performance. They do not need an additional 20 months to see how they are doing.

- Social impacts have been increasingly negative on nearby residents, as far as Brunswick to the south and Pottsville to the north) and while some local businesses may benefit, not all do. Many businesses that cater to local residents actually lose money during festivals. Also, any benefits should be weighed carefully against the costs to the community in terms of loss of amenity, disturbances, security and safety issues and road safety, congestion and abuse of the little bridge from the old highway towards Wooyung.

- Parklands claims that Falls 2017 cannot proceed and that they are too far along with plans for Splendour 2018, Falls 2018, and Splendour 2019 to back out now. As if their business will die if they don't get an extension. They just want to buy time and pressure people into it. They could have the festival somewhere else for a while as they did early in the game.

Generally I object to Parklands all-together for the following reasons:

The Tweed Valley Way is inadequate for the traffic flow and will cause both congestion and, inevitably, accidents. Were Parklands to be given the right to host 50,000 (and more!) this issue would transform from difficult to impossible. Just the buses added to the equation would make the task impossible. While access to Parklands is limited to one point of entry along the Tweed Valley Way, with only a small section of turn-off lane into the festival site, traffic issues will continue to be a problem even with the present number cap of 35,000. The NSW Police (Report by ByronTweed LAC) has said, "There is no possibility of evacuating North Byron Parklands within 8 hours at current capacity levels." (They wrote this with reference to Splendour 2016; the current capacity of that event was 32,500/day. The present parking capacity of Parklands is 9,000 cars. While I do not know the ratio of cars to patrons I suspect that the actual car numbers with an attendance of 35,000 brings about 17,000 cars, leaving a gap of 8,000 car spaces between what is available and what there are. An attendance of 50,000 equals about 25,000 cars!!! 16,000 are going to park where?
Parklands indicate in its literature to us that it has the capacity to accommodate up to 20,000 patrons as campers. At the present cap of 35,000 that leaves 15,000 with the need for accommodation. About 3,500 of these are local, leaving 11,500. Were they be granted their sought after 42,500 or 50,000 the issue of outside accommodation would increase with every extra patron. Moving 30,000 patrons twice a day assuming 50 patrons per bus would add 60 buses to the existing traffic flow. Just the prospect of at least 60 buses, along with regular traffic and cars associated with the transportation, all moving in and out twice a day to/from a wide variety of destinations with the existing infrastructure defies the imagination, even without bringing rain or other weather conditions into it.
Falls Festival runs over the New Year when accommodation is already packed with Christmas holiday visitors. Where will these people find accommodation? The cost of camping at the Festival or finding rental is expensive and residents are aware of an increase in illegal camping and street parking. With a shortage of regulatory officers we are concerned that this will escalate, especially if the attendance numbers are increased even further. Illegal street parking is a source of anxiety to residents. Having a strange car parked on your nature strip is an invasion of our privacy. A spin off from the illegal camping in natural bush areas or the beach includes: Fires and the danger of bush fires. Damage to the bush from vehicles, clearing space and finding firewood. The remaining rubbish, including human faeces, left behind to be cleaned up by whom? The residents? The angst created within residents by groups of young, often intoxicated, strangers behaving erratically. Council staff available is inadequate to the task, and NSW Police have said they cannot police our residential areas AND the festival, too. (Byron Tweed LAC report.)It should be noted that the two festivals that have been held at Parklands have not, up to this stage, run into severe weather. Parklands is a totally outdoor event and on flat land that will allow the pooling of water on flat areas and, in extremes, flood. It is, in fact, a flood-prone area and great areas of it have been completely underwater in the recent past. To exacerbate this potential is the large numbers that are being dealt with. Even at 35,000 there have been cases in the past where the clearing of the site of patrons has taken 5 hours or more, and that was done under normal weather conditions! The police report re the 2016 Splendour festival has already been cited above indicating their deep concerns about emergency evacuations.
As a resident I am concerned with the loss of signal that has accompanied phone reception. The numbers being touted by Parklands are going to put a strain of phone services. As the phone is our primary means of communication in respect to emergencies arising in our area, (eg fire, tsunami) this raises serious issues with us as residents. Any moves to make Parklands a permanent site will need to consider this AND look at the responsibility Parklands have in ensuring our service is not compromised by its attendees.
Over time the vision of Parklands has gradually but inexorably grown from the explicitly pronounced "just one festival a year!" to "just two festivals" and with the present proposals of 20 festival days (12 days earmarked for 50,000/day capacity and 8 days earmarked for 25,000 capacity. See point 7 below for the full interpretation and consequences of their 20 day proposal). Over time those of us who have expressed concern have been placated with the assurance that Parklands is NEVER going to become the festival site of the State!
At present, community complaints, environmental issues, noise pollution, traffic monitoring, on-site medical issues, security of surrounding dwellings, auditing of actual numbers of attendees (including paying and other), are among the areas which are monitored by Parklands. NO!!! Independent audit has ever been done. It seems we simply have to trust that they are being good citizens. An issue that is hard to accept when there are many anecdotal instances of resident input having been whitewashed and swept under the carpet. Also, it's only when the NSW Police made public their report on Splendour 2016 that we have learned the full extent of their concerns. Their review of the operation of that festival was exceedingly alarming.
Parklands have to commit at least $30,000,000 ($30 million!) to the site!! Their proposal certainly shows the accounting exercise to back this. The big question remains is whether Parklands will honour their commitments and what will happen if they don't!? It does not require genius to recognize that the magic figure to qualify for Significant Development is thirty million so it is an easy arithmetical exercise to create such a figure (their exercise has created a figure of $32,653,826.00). Again, who will audit their commitment, to guarantee that the figures on a piece of paper are actually materialized and within a reasonable time frame?

There is a growing concern that Parklands is not being asked to pay with the responsibilities that come with the project they are running. That they are not picking up a lot of bills that arise directly out of the consequences of their commercial activity. Parklands rightly defend this by saying that they pay all their rates PLUS they make substantial donations to the community. The rates Parklands are paying are for a RURAL property as opposed to a commercial festival site. The attendant expenses to them are astronomical compared to an adjoining farmer.

As residents the issue of monitoring the illegal parking, camping and partying are increasingly becoming a big issue, along with enforcing Council regulations. Why should residents carry the direct burdens of Parklands by having to confront these people in order to protect our environment?? Why should our council be responsible for hiring extra rangers to be on duty in our neighbourhoods during events? That cost would ultimately be borne by us, ratepayers.

Parkland says they can not function without permanent approval. In contrast, <REDACTED> is running his <REDACTED> site in <REDACTED> with Council as the consent authority and without permanent approval from the state that Parklands claims is essential to their business plan. If <REDACTED> is able to put on profitable, successful events under Council authority, Parklands c...

I am submitting a vote of support to North Byron Parklands to continue to operate as the home of Splendour in the Grass and Falls music festival.

I have attended both festivals over the past 4-5 years and I feel it brings positive tourism to our area.

Morning,

I am strongly voicing my support for the development at North Byron Parklands as I firmly believe the venue provides our region with world class entertainment options as well as providing, in the future, open space for community groups, schools and the like for events, fetes and fairs.
I have attended all events on the property and have sen the considerable steps the venue goes to to provide significant protection to flora and fauna, to provide a safe environment for their patrons and to ensure best practise in all areas they undertake. I would be happy to speak about this further if required