It was a case of Groundhog Day for the Lismore City Council (LCC) extraordinary meeting last night, at least in terms of the decisions made.

Both rescission motions put forward by councillors (Cr) Ekins, Guise and Bird were defeated meaning the DA for the proposed mixed-use site at 117 Magellan Street will not go ahead and LCC will adopt Model C as part of its Waste Operation Review.

The debate over whether 117 Magellan Street should be used for markets and food trucks was another passionate debate that became personal when the rescission motion was voted down with comments made to Councillor Rob as the applicants were leaving council chambers.

It was a similar story to last week, where DA supporters said the mixed-use site would be an innovative incubator space that allows businesses to test their products as an ongoing business concern versus it being a threat to established bricks and mortar CBD block businesses that had to pay over six figures to set up their shop plus more to become operational again after the big floods of 2022.

There was a little more detail, as the consultant town planner Malcolm Scott addressed the reasons given for voting the DA down last week including satisfying the necessary council staff concerns around waste management, water, car parking and the DA not being in the public's interest. This was addressed by mentioning the over 25 public comments in support of the DA and only three against it.

Cr Rob began his five minutes by listing the CBD businesses that signed a document against supporting the DA, they included Thai Satay Hut, Scoops and Candy, Curious Craft, Cut Loose, Forest Lismore, Tropicana Fruit and Veg, Suffolks Outdoor Sports, Mel's Melting Moments to name a few of the over 20 owners of CBD businesses around the block. As well as mentioning the fact that Food Truck owners can test their product for free on private property to see if it can generate enough return to become a bricks-and-mortar business.

Cr Bird said, "We should be giving people a go, we should be giving innovation a go, we should be giving people the opportunity to bring something new and to breathe some life into the CBD." These thoughts were echoed by Crs Guise and Ekins.

Cr Cook spoke about the history of Lismore and how it has changed and evolved in its 167 years through transport, products, demographics and markets, "Yet they keep adapting and never have asked council to restrict other traders in the city," Cr Cook said.

Cr Gordon spoke about the hypocrisy of those voicing their disappointment of the councillors that voted against the DA after previous councillors in the chamber had been disappointing the community for 20 years. "This is the same chamber that sat down and knocked back the extension of 50 shops to the Square, not that long ago."

The result was Crs Guise, Ekins, Bird and Cook voting for the rescission motion and Crs Jensen, Colby, Hall, Gordon, Bing, Rob and Krieg against so it was lost 4/7. The owners of 117 Magellan Street will need to go back to the drawing board.

When it came time to debate the Waste Operation Review rescission motion going back into confidential, Cr Rob moved a motion, which he tried to get in earlier, so each speaker had three minutes to make their point, not the normal five because the meeting would go past 6pm when councillors had a workshop, briefing and training. It ended up getting support.

Like last week, the point made by those making the rescission motion was around the potential Model C being adopted being a "major change in our strategy (Waste Strategy) that his council adopted last year and was widely consulted with our community," said Cr Ekins.

Community consultation was a key point made by Crs Ekins, Bird, Guise and Cook when talking about the Waste Operation Review model. Another key point was the "secret meetings" that went on without the knowledge of councillors although councillors did have two workshops where they were presented with "flowcharts and no financial information."

Like last week, the debate over why the Waste Operation Review was confidential revolved around council staff workers being a collective group and not individuals according to section 10.1.b under the Local Government Act and there also being no commercial confidence.

The counter-argument was that the discussion revolved around the workers in the waste facility so this was indeed sensitive information as it directly involved the staff (many of whom were in chambers last night) and their livelihoods.

Cr Gordon said that this waste problem has been brewing for 20 years and no one was taking responsibility. "This is the fault of this chamber, it's the fault of management, it's not the fault of these guys (referring to council workers)."

"You talk about your core businesses, tell me one you've been successful in. Is it the quarry? Is it the waste? Is it sewage? No, it's not, you've failed at every single one of them."

Cr Rob echoed Cr Gordon's words and added that priority number one was looking after staff and priority number two was looking after ratepayers. "It should be the other way round, he said, "Because staff are also ratepayers."

Cr Rob said that when the details come out, they will be favourable to staff and that no discussions involved any staff members being sacked.

The vote to go into confidential was successful and when council returned for the results, the rescission motion was defeated and Model C will be explored.

For the community, the details are non-existent. We cannot be told the details to why waste collection is looking to be outsourced and what other elements of council's waste strategy is losing money that is supported by ratepayers money and what the possible solution/s are.

Now that the rescission motion has been dealt with, the motion cannot come back to chambers, so now we can get the facts about the state of the Lismore City Council waste facility and understand the decisions being made.