Decision on Lennox Head police station overturned

BALLINA Shire Council will offer land at Lennox Head to NSW Police for a new station, overturning a decision made before the September election.

The site on the corner of Byron Bay Road and Hutley Drive had been earmarked for a preschool, but the centre will now be located within the new Lennox Head Primary School development.

Councillors resolved in August to reject a proposal to gift NSW Police the land on the condition it build a police station there. Instead, they requested a report on future options for the land and a greater police presence in Lennox Head.

Ballina councillors Eva Ramsey, Kiri Dicker, and Simon Chate lodged a rescission motion against the decision at the October meeting.

Cr Ramsey said she brought the rescission motion as four councillors were absent from the original vote.

“I want us to delve into it so that all of the people in the community know we have done our best to get some sort of policing in this area.”

She said the site, which was next to the Lennox Head Rural Fire Service shed, was the ideal location for a police station in an area with a growing population, and it was worth exploring whether the police would take up the offer.

She said having emergency services nearby could make a “life and death difference” in some instances.

Cr Dicker said the community wanted a police station in the town, and they needed to explore the possibility of it being a police station while the land was still available.

Minister for Police and Counter Terrorism Yasmin Catley said, in response to a council letter, that most crime rates in Lennox Head had remained stable over the past two years.

Cr Phil Meehan said the reality was the police station “was not going to happen” as the crime rates in the town didn’t warrant it.

He said the land size and ongoing resourcing needed to staff the station would prohibit a it from being built at the site.

Mayor Sharon Cadwallader agreed, saying Ballina was already 60 police officers short, let alone staffing a new station.

She said it was cost-shifting from the state to local government to offer the land at a peppercorn rent.

Councillors resolved to offer the land to NSW Police.