Pontoon duel looms

COWPER residents have vowed to keep fighting against a pontoon being put on their side of the river, claiming a lack of consultation should scuttle the project.

COWPER residents have vowed to keep fighting against a pontoon being put on their side of the river, claiming a lack of consultation and good governance should scuttle the project.

The decision to proceed with the pontoon at Cowper, and not across the river at Brushgrove, was ratified by the Clarence Valley Council last night after some fierce debate in the ordinary meeting at Maclean.

But Cowper residents felt the decision was flawed due to technical grounds, and because there was so little community consultation involving them.

"Council's decision will not be the end of the matter," Cowper resident Margaret Walker said. "The solution is to make a lot of noise."

The Cowper community was still assessing its options but Ms Walker felt there was a case to take to the NSW Ombudsman.

Melissa Wearing said the community still had very little knowledge of what would be involved with the new pontoon because they hadn't seen any plans or a development application. This went against council's own rules, she said.

The decision to put the pontoon at Cowper was essentially made by council employees who assessed the option without informing councillors, Cr Karen Toms said.

This also meant Cowper residents didn't know about it until recently, while the Brushgrove option was mentioned as part of the Clarence River Tourism Plan as far back as 2009, she said.

"Council organised a meeting that put a pontoon at Cowper and didn't even mention Cowper when they informed the media. It is just not right," she said.

Ms Walker understood the funding for the pontoon was time dependent, but argued that this shouldn't stop the council from undertaking proper consultation.

Originally published as Pontoon duel looms