Please refer to attached submission

I strongly object to DA proposal by NORTH BYRON PARKLANDS, I object to
the size and scale of the changes they wish to make to the site in
regards to the patron numbers and the buildings they want to build. I
object that this has been taken out of the local government hands and
that a multinational company from the USA is proposing excessive over
development of the site in the nature of building a conference centre
& permanent bar. These are greedy and unnecessary additions for music
festivals, and will be of VERY limited benefit to the people who live
in the shire. We want people to live here not just come to make money
from the shires assets.

Please see attachment. 1) Personally my biggest concern if flooding. I
live in Wooyung Rd. That road was cut off in last April's flood on two
sections. No one from the festival would have been able to get out
through the northern side of Parklands for 4 days! Even worse, the
front carpark (facing Yelgun) floods first, therefore when it gets bad
there is no escape through the front door either! In this flood the 2
m marker on Wooyung rd was under water and the water was moving fast.
??? I have pics but can't send them as pdf. Contact me if you want to
see them. People could get hurt in all the barb wire fences (cow
padocks) or worse drown! A 1000 gallon water tank was swept onto the
fence of Wooyung rd. during this flood. Peoples equipment and
belongings would have been rendered dysfunctional and spread over a
huge area. What about all the sewage if it floods during a festival?
2) Sewage is to be buried or sprayed on the Parklands site, which
straddles two water catchments. Both tactics carry risks of
contamination of ground water and surface water that will affect
nearby residential areas and the Nature Reserve. On-site land
formations and frequent site flooding both present major challenges to
the planned disposal of effluent on site. Also, no provision is made
for dealing with inorganic matter in the waste stream, e.g., sanitary
products, plastics, etc., or for treating chemicals that become part
of the waste stream, e.g., prescription drugs, over-the-counter drugs,
and other unmetabolised chemicals. And it's not clear if UV light or
chlorine will be used to disinfect the waste and if the process will
be fully effective. Parklands says they will implement their sewage
treatment plans "progressively as budget allows" although a complete
sewage treatment system was supposed to be in place by the end of
2017. So they're not yet prepared to handle the sewage they generate.
What they can't treat on site will have to be trucked to overloaded
sewage treatment plants in Byron Shire or elsewhere. This is not
responsible management. 3) Recurring issues include noise, traffic,
impacts on the environment, impacts on local infrastructure (roads,
water, sewer systems) and impacts on residential amenity and health.
Fire risks continue to be great, especially since the festivals have
numerous bonfires and are located in a fire-prone area. Problems have
arisen repeatedly throughout the trial, many unpredictable, e.g., the
on-site traffic nightmares at Splendour 2016, recurring outbreaks of
"festival flu", unpredictable noise disturbance throughout the area,
and repeated illegal use of fireworks on the site. During Falls
Festival the whole shire is already overloaded with tourists. The
festival puts extra strain on roads, accommodation, transport and
services in the highest tourist season. That does not make sense. 4)
Byron Council, in consultation with local residents and business
owners, should be determining the shire's destiny--not the state
government. 5) No independent analysis has been done that objectively
weighs the purported benefits of the festivals against the costs to
the community. The Economic Benefits Report, Appendix W in the
proposal, was generated by a Parklands-paid consultant. The report is
presented "without the assumption of a duty of care to any other
person other than the client [Parklands]" and the report further
cautions any third party from "using or relying on the facts, content,
opinions or subject matter" in the report. Experts in assessing
economic costs and benefits have described the report as incomplete,
inaccurate, and misleading. 6) The two major festivals staged on the
site are 51% owned by Live Nation, an American entertainment
conglomerate. Permanent approval of this proposal will put profits
generated at Parklands into the hands of that conglomerate, an entity
that is not answerable to elected officials or local residents. 7)
Billinudgel Nature Reserve and Marshalls Ridge Wildlife Corridor, into
which NSW has invested millions of dollars over decades, are the most
state significant assets in the north of Byron Shire. Approval of this
proposal will permanently change the nature of this
ecologically-significant area--for the worse. The state should not
have been approved festivals at Parklands to begin with. They now have
a chance to correct that earlier mistake.