Lismore in top 5% for infrastructure and essential services

InSight index shows Lismore and Ballina councils outperforms many Sydney counterparts and business is booming in the Byron Shire.

IT MAY come as a surprise to those accustomed to complaining about roads and hospitals, but the Lismore local government area was ranked an impressive 23rd in the country last week for its infrastructure and essential services.

Among a total of 560 council areas around Australia the ranking puts Lismore in the top 5% of the nation's council areas.

Developed by the Regional Australia Institute, the InSight index compared Australia's local government areas on a comprehensive range of criteria including economics and employment, infrastructure and services, and natural resources.

Lismore's ranking on essential services came down to its strength in health and education.

According to the index, the council area boasts excellent access to hospital and allied health services, tertiary and technical education.

Its only weakness in health was access to GPs, where it ranked well back in 304th place.

But overall Lismore's services ranking topped dozens of Melbourne and Sydney metropolitan councils, where dense populations equal intensive pressure on services.

Lismore also came 31st in the nation for its number of research organisations, presumably due to the presence of Southern Cross University.

Ballina council area, with its close proximity to Lismore plus Wollongbar TAFE and Ballina Hospital also emerged better than the metros on the essential services ledger, ranking 62nd.

Tweed Shire - often seen as the burgeoning upstart of our region with its popula- tion boom - was actually back in 82nd place for essential services.

Of all our region's council areas, Byron Shire probably emerged as the biggest surprise packet, coming up impressively on several business criteria which underlined its potential beyond tourism.

It ranked 22nd in the nation for its number of importers, exporters, and wholesalers, achieved the highest ranking in our region for the number of businesses in technology sector and also ranked highest for broadband connections.

Ballina, Byron and Lismore also performed well on "human capital" measures, with Byron boasting the highest number of university qualified and the best school-finishing rate in our region, while Lismore ranked highest in secondary school performance.