State govt keeps mute on NBP noise report

Noise monitoring of events at North Byron Parklands (NBP) in Yelgun will be put to the vote on at this Thursday’s Council meeting after the state government refused to hand over its own internal report to Council.

In his motion, mayor Simon Richardson says, ‘In four years time, Council will be the determining body when considering the long-term use of this site and the appropriateness of holding festivals and events. It is therefore beneficial to Council to have its own set of data, over a few years, from which to judge the noise issue and with which to compare other noise monitoring testing.’

While no funds have been identified for the project, Council staff say they have been quoted $6,900 plus GST per event.

In a letter to Council on November 8 last year, the Department of Planning and Infrastructure’s Chris Ritchie wrote, ‘I note you have requested to be provided with a copy of the department’s site visit report from the 2013 [Splendour In The Grass] SITG event. The report prepared by the departmental officer attending the event was prepared for internal information only, therefore I am unable to make this available to Council.’

When The Echo questioned the secrecy, the department’s media spokesperson said the officer who attended the 2013 Splendour in the Grass Festival did not prepare a formal ‘site visit report’.

‘The “report” referred to in the letter to Byron Shire Council refers to informal, internal notes that are not appropriate to release publicly.’