Markets

It ain’t broke, so no need for fixing 
I’m not sure why some councillors seem so keen on taking the Monthly  Byron Market out of the hands of the Byron Community Centre. Bottom line is this: all profits from the market go straight into all the community services of the BCC, for example, liberation larder, the No Interest Loans scheme and emergency support. It is especially disappointing because, three years in making, we had a massive success in supporting our markets recently, and not in the way you may think. Read More

Yes, we worked a way forward to keep the Byron markets at the current Butler st site, however, despite publicly aired concerns, moving them unless supported by markets groups was never actually being considered. It was still great to see the outpouring of support and love for our markets. The great success occurred quietly a few months ago- we passed a policy that ensures our markets are managed by those with local experience and for local benefit, and thus, threats of crassly commercialising them by those who were willing to pay the most to manage them was finally put to rest.

After the public meetings a few years back I was gratified to see the level of community support for the push by others and myself to change the assessment criteria; removing the great weight to the highest bid. Now, after the wonderful and community focused work by a committee of market managers, stall-holders, community members and councilors and council staff, Council endorsed a new policy, including a new assessment criteria. How much a bidder is willing to pay no longer exists as a tender assessment criteria; instead agreeing to paying a fixed fee is a mandatory assessment criteria.

The new Sustainable Community Markets Policy 15/007 can be found at http://www.byron.nsw.gov.au/files/publications/sustainable_community_markets_policy.pdf