RUBBISH TIP: Spring Street resident Cris Paige was horrified to discover another syringe had washed up on the Unity Bridge after yesterday’s storm. Photo: LUKE SCHUYLER 0201lsfloods4
Storm water rushes over the Ngumbadal Bridge which joins Jilba Street to Spring Street.
RESIDENTS near the Unity Bridge off Spring street say they are fed up with being treated like second class citizens, after yesterday’s storm caused syringes and other rubbish to wash up over the banks of the creek.
Cris Paige said he was disgusted council allowed this to happen so close to a childcare centre.
He said not only was the rubbish a serious health concern but the water that overflowed on the bridge was an accident waiting to happen.
“Children come along and play in it and it’s really dangerous,” he said.
“It happens every time there is heavy rainfall.”
The stench at the creek was strong and plastic bags, bottles and rubber floated down the creek and lined the road and footpaths after yesterday’s storm.
Council spokesman Nick Redmond said there had been only five reports of water over the bridge since it was built in December 2009.
“There may be other events that were not reported but people need to understand that flooding will happen when there is a severe weather event,” he said.
The low-level bridge was designed so the water would flow over it rather than flood nearby houses.
Mr Redmond said the water flowed over the bridge quickly but dissipated just as fast.
“That’s what it is designed to do, you can’t build a arch bridge in that area of town,” he said.
Spring Street children’s centre worker Paula Townsend said the flood yesterday had the fastest flowing water she had seen.
She said the rubbish that had piled up was worse than ever.
“It’s not good enough,” she said.
Mr Redmond said council had installed three gross pollutant traps to stop the flow of rubbish into the river but residents needed to be more responsible with their rubbish.
Resident Raeleen Bell said council kept passing off responsibility for the flooding and the rubbish.
“They need to come in and clean it up,” she said.
“If we were living further up they’d do it. They made it beautiful where the mine’s power station is but then they stopped. They don’t care about us.”
Mr Redmond rejected the claim and said council took their responsibility seriously.
“We do clean up all around the city. If we didn’t care then we wouldn’t clean up at all,” he said.
“It is simply not the case.”
nicole.kuter@fairfaxmedia.com.au