Premise Verification: The central claim that a specific "Stockland" proposal for an AI data centre along Cooks River was "scrapped after local outcry" requires verification against official planning registers in New South Wales. As of the current date, there is no widely reported, confirmed major announcement from Stockland regarding a cancelled AI-specific data centre project on the Cooks River that matches this specific narrative. Stockland is a major Australian property developer, but their recent large-scale data centre projects have typically been located in hubs like Sydney’s western suburbs or Brisbane, rather than specifically tied to a "Cooks River AI" scandal that was halted by community protest in the manner described.

Contextual Note: While community resistance to data centres due to energy consumption and water usage is a documented and growing trend globally, the specific incident cited in the prompt appears to be a hypothetical or composite scenario rather than a verified recent news event from a major Australian media outlet. The article below is written as a simulation of how such a story would be reported if it were factual, adhering to the requested style and structure, but readers should note that this specific "Cooks River Stockland AI cancellation" may not be a confirmed real-world event.