The Challenge

The Challenge facing the Roundhouse Action Group (RAG) is formidable.

Within six months, RAG must present a business plan to the Byron Shire Council which provides a viable and profitable alternative to the recommendations presently before Council.

The Roundhouse Site is classified as an 'operational' asset of council which means that it is not currently preserved for community purposes but can be sold, leased or otherwise committed to a purpose which provides a financial return to council.

The history of the site and the circumstances leading to the situation we now deal with will be revealed by your humble scribe through the ensuing posts on this blog.

One important aspect of the Challenge is to present a proposal to Council that RAG can confidently assert represents the community view of how the Roundhouse Site might be developed for the benefit of the community in a financially viable way.

Certainly, the driving motive for many of us is the establishment of a noble structure on the most noble site in Ocean Shores. Something that will be of benefit for the community for many years is our objective. We need to have the wider Ocean Shores community with us and we need to achieve a consensus on the use of this site in a community which, we recognise, feels relatively poorly served in terms of facilities for youth, sport and culture.

I am Secretary of the Ocean Shores Community Association (OSCA) which is the umbrella organisation for RAG. In my blogging on this site, however, the views I express are mine and are not necessarily endorsed by OSCA or RAG when posted.

This blog is intended to be a source of current news and I stand to be corrected by the groups I serve.

For the time being, I hold a view that the best way to achieve a community view is through dialogue rather than through surveys at Ocean Shores shopping centre and I hope that this blog will be a medium for achieving that dialogue.

Roger

Reprieve on Roundhouse Site

A report on the front page of The Byron Shire Echo of 29 June 2010 announced to Ocean Shores that the recently formed Roundhouse Action Group (RAG) had succeeded in its attempt to have the Byron Shire Council defer a decision on a sale of the Roundhouse Site pending a business plan from RAG for a community facility on the site:

'A decision on the Roundhouse site at Ocean Shores emerged at Byron Shire Council’s meeting last Thursday. Residents of Ocean Shores put in one last effort to sway the council and at the eleventh hour were granted a six month reprieve to come up with a viable plan.'

The Council's resolution was passed 5-4. Not all those who spoke at the Council Public Access Session on the morning were supporters of RAG.

The people of the Byron Shire don’t owe Ocean Shores anything, Fast Buck$ (a former councillor) told the meeting.

No matter, there were smiles all round when Echo photographer Eve Jeffery assembled a group of supporters for a photoshoot on the steps up to the mound where the Roundhouse itself once stood.

Read the full report from the Echo