Sometimes you win.

Rejection of the Special Entertainment Precinct
is a Win for an engaged community

Every week across Byron Shire there are people responding to issues by donating their time and knowledge. They’re at committee meetings, reading council polices, making submissions, reporting on issues and doing the unseen work that keeps a community engaged.

Are they volunteers or activists? We’d say both.

Whether it’s over-sized concrete developments, off-leash dogs in National Parks, illegal campers, or unkept open spaces ~ there will be an issue that sparks action.

How much you care about an issue will determine your scale of involvement.

👊 People of Byron (POB) was part of a group that helped raise community awareness about the impacts of the proposed Special Entertainment Precinct (SEP). The campaign and key members spent countless hours dissecting the NSW Government policy and relentlessly interrogating the issue at a Council level. In July last year, a community meeting was held at Byron Bay Community Centre, organised purely by word-of-mouth, SOLD OUT 😊  The community wanted information, they came to hear local and knowledgeable speakers break down the SEP because Byron Shire Council took the second step before the first. The meeting was widely reported in the media and put the issue under the spotlight.

For some, it was their first community campaign. For others, they were seasoned advocates.

This was community engagement at its best and the Councillors who attended the meeting were able to gauge firsthand community sentiment on what Council was forging ahead with.  That meeting likely played a pivotal role in the demise of the controversial SEP. In late February, Councillors withdrew from the SEP , since then there has been a shift in the messaging coming from Council, a more considered and positive approach with a re-focus on place and the natural environment.

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July 2025.

Word-of-mouth community meeting,
as reported in The Echo.