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Land and Environment Court Hears Residents Submissions in mullumbimby

Today, the28th of September The Land and Environment Court held session in Station Street and the adjacent Woolworths site. In a ceremony reminiscent of ancient times the hearing was held in the open air in the middle of Station Street with many residents listening to the proceedings.

Four local residents, Garry Scott, Duncan Dey, Deborah Lilly and Chris Abrahams gave submissions on the on-site sewerage system and the equity of Woolworths proposal.

As well as opponents of the Woolworths sewerage system, several employees and supporters of Mallams were there waving placards which said things like "save our Jobs" etc.

However despite their presence they did not give any submissions to the court.

The proceedings were opened by Tim Robertson SC, barrister for Byron Shire Council. He stated that the court would only be considering matters relating to the S68 proposal. Mr Robertson then welcomed submissions. He  asked questions  of each person as they gave their submissions. The only question posed by Woolworths barrister was to Duncan Dey, asking if he knew when the new sewerage plant would become operational. Duncan replied that he could not say, it depended also on the successful rebuilding of the town sewer pipes and Byron Shire Council would be the only authority who would know.

Then the court entered the Woolworths site and spent considerable time  perusing and querying plans and operating procedures of the on site management OSMS. Considerable legal argument about procedure and evidence followed.  Because of a large amount of last minute  report material that had not been read, The Commissioner  adjourned the proceedings until Tuesday Morning at 10am to allow the legal teams to read and understand it.

Comment From  Maleny Community Spokesman:

Congratulations on the coverage of yesterday's protest/hearing. A great achievement to do such a good job in the time available.

From our experience here, the potential employees would be well advised to get their promises from Woolworths in writing. Our 'big box' does employ some locals but they are mostly very young and casuals (cheaper). Even so, quite a few have been laid off because of the low turnover. It's also noticeable that many of the more senior employees are from out of town and drive to work each day. At first they parked in a staff carpark under the building but now they use the customers' car park -- we believe they were instructed to -- and this gives the impression the shop is busier than it really is. Our information from an insider is that Ww prefer staff from out of town because it reduces 'mistakes' at the till when serving friends and neighbours.