Canterbury-Bankstown Council reviews membership of Cooks River Alliance

The future of the Cooks River Alliance is on shaky ground after Canterbury-Bankstown Council last week ordered a review into the “costs and benefits” of its membership.

Canterbury-Bankstown Council are reviewing the “costs and benefits” of its membership in the Cooks River Alliance. Picture: Melvyn Knipe

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The future of the Cooks River Alliance is on shaky ground after Canterbury-Bankstown Council last week ordered a review into the “costs and benefits” of its membership.

The review comes after the Cooks River was highlighted as a priority Green Grid project in the Greater Sydney Commission’s district plan, released last week.

Canterbury-Bankstown has the largest proportion of the Cooks River with 34 per cent of the catchment.

While the council maintains it is “committed to the protection and health of our waterways”, it will defer pay­ments until the report is completed. Without the council’s funding of $130,000 in 2015-16, the alliance would likely disintegrate.

Its future was already uncertain after Georges River Council withdrew from the alliance in September.

John Butcher, president of Cooks River Valley Association, treasurer Chris Shanley and coordinator of the Mudcrabs Peter Munro. Picture: Melvyn Knipe

Cooks River Mudcrabs co-ordinator Peter Munro said as the population in the area grew, the river required “co-ordinated planning and resourcing”.

“If the alliance ceases to exist, a vital combined and knowledgeable voice that now advocates for the river will be lost,” he said.

“It cannot be managed, monitored and facilitated in a piecemeal way.”

The report presented to the council last week said: “It needs to be demonstrated that a collaborative and financially viable catchment group can emerge from the amalgamated councils in the Cooks River catchment.

“There is an opportunity (for the council) to take the lead on managing an effective catchment group with other major councils within the catchment as partners.”

The council decided to continue as a financial member of the Parramatta River Catchment group and the Georges River Combined Councils Committee.

The Greater Sydney Commission singles out Cooks River to become a “regionally significant parkland corridor” with improved water quality and open spaces.

An abandoned shopping trolley in the Cooks River near Tasker Park. Picture: Melvyn Knipe

Ongoing river pollution a huge concern for residents

Up to 100 bags of rubbish are being removed from Cooks River six times a year with some parts of the river so thick with pollution, “you could almost walk across it”.

Concerned resident Maggie Lloyd emailed The Express last week.

“Residents living close to the Cooks River near Tasker Park (and) Canterbury aquatic centre are becoming increasingly concerned about the levels of pollution in the river,” she said.

“The area is supposed to be attracting new residents — but the smell is repulsive and the pollution becoming dangerous.”

Plastic bags and waste are all too common to see floating along Cooks River. Picture: Melvyn Knipe

Peter Munro of the Cooks River Mudcrabs Association said it is not uncommon for volunteers to pull between 50 and 100 bags of rubbish from the river.

“We could be doing it every day,” he said. “Near Brighton Ave (Croydon Park) we call it the dead zone ... at times there are so many plastic bottles it looks like you could almost walk across it.”

Mr Munro said he believes pollution stems from increased population and development.

Development along Cooks River. Picture: Melvyn Knipe.

Canterbury-Bankstown Council said it has a number of strategies to manage waste, including two booms, at Ewen Park and Tasker Park, to capture rubbish from the river.

“We also continue to educate local community groups and schools on how to prevent rubbish or pollutants from entering the river,” a council spokesman said.

Other groups that work on the Cooks River include: Cooks River Valley Association, Friends of Ewen Park, Friends of Greenway, Mizaan Ecology and Awareness Group and Wolli Creek Preservation Society.