Call to cover open drain

A drainage channel should be covered as part of work on the new Peninsula Regional Leisure Centre, according to the Peninsula Residents Action Group.

This stormwater channel extends some distance across the Woy Woy Peninsula and is piped for the majority of its length, according to action group president Mr Trevor Anderson.

The up-stream end of the channel is fed by three pipes under James Browne oval, he said.

Mr Anderson said only a short section of the drain remained open, with the last few hundred metres being piped once more under Blackwall Rd and out into Brisbane Water.

He said that, where it flowed into the open, the drain was a haven for vermin such as rats, promoted the growth of noxious weeds such as Bamboo and had the potential for injury.

The group said once the Leisure Centre is opened, it

He said the drain would be an eyesore at the new leisure centre.

He said the drain was not even to the standard of that found on the boundary of the Woy Woy Court House.

Gosford Council has told the group that the drain is lined to mitigate against potential flood damage and also to prevent erosion of the channel banks.

It has given three reasons against piping the drain: cost, siltation control and maintenance.

The council estimates the cost of the work would be $600,000.

Mr Anderson said this would add only 2.5 per cent to the existing $27 million project.

He said Gosford Council had also told the group that the Department of Infrastructure, Planning and Natural Resources favoured the current channel acts as a natural nutrient and siltation control.

The council had also told the group that piping any channel made it more difficult and costly to maintain the drain.

Mr Anderson said these were not insurmountable obstacles and similar issues had been solved elsewhere in the Brisbane Water system.

Press release, September 29 Trevor Anderson, Peninsula Residents Action Group