by Mat Churchill

The Douglas community is being urged to rally at the Cairns Regional Council meeting to be held at Mossman on Wednesday.

Robert Hanan of the Friends Of Douglas Shire (FODS) said the community should take the opportunity to voice its displeasure over Council's handling of a number of issues, including the cancellation of a chlorine free trial in the Douglas water supply.

"The main issue will be the water and our horror in terms of the decision not to proceed with the trial, given that we had been led up the garden path, effectively, all the way through. Alot of people wasted an awful lot of money and an awful lot of time, to just have it turned around and dumped on us.

"They (Council) don't want to commit to having the expertise to run a chlorine free system, it's much easier to just dump chlorine in it. That's what they do down there (Cairns), you don't need any great skills, they got rid of the people who knew how to run the system."

Mr Hanan said figures presented to the Water Reference Group to run a chlorine free trial have been changed by Cairns Water.

"The estimates from the experts that came from Holland and the States, on the worst case scenario the Water Reference Group was presented with at the last meeting we had put a figure at $2.75 million to do it. All of a sudden it's turned into $4.75 million."

"12 months ago it was going to happen and we had no choice but to believe them, so their credibility is shot."

Mr Hanan hinted that the group has a plan to gain the attention of the region's media, and said that the Council may have gone past the point of no return in terms of regaining community support.

"I don't think there's a way back," he said. "It's not time to buy firearms but it's getting close."

Mr Hanan asked for those who would like to attend the rally to meet at the Mossman Council Chambers at 9am on Wednesday.