Parents worry children's future sold up the river

Opposed to the M5 East extension ... Colin Lee, 78, remembers a time when you could swim in the Cooks River. A LIFE-LONG Tempe resident, Colin Lee, remembers when you could sink an onion bag into the Cooks River to catch prawns or dive off the banks into the water reports Ben Rushton in the Sydney Morning Herald of 16 January 2010.

''We'd run and dive and if you couldn't make it past the first boat out on the water you weren't allowed to play,'' the 78-year-old said.

Children growing up in Tempe today would not dream of swimming in the water, but their parents are worried they will not be able to breathe the air either if the Government goes ahead with a four-lane motorway.

A Roads and Traffic Authority feasibility study, which is on exhibition, proposes an extension of the M5 East that will run through the Tempe wetlands, Sydenham and St Peters, areas that bear the brunt of inner Sydney's air, rail and road traffic. It is but one route in a possible carve-up of the suburbs, which will include roads, tunnels and exhaust stacks dotting the horizon.

''The RTA may as well come around and feed my kids a lead sandwich,'' said a local father, Patrick McInerney.

He and Mr Lee live in what locals jokingly refer to as ''East Tempe'', a vibrant community of Macedonian migrants, young families and inner-west veterans who live between the Princes Highway and the Cooks River. The residents have a little spot of greenery where they gather four times a year for community parties - a reserve, driving range and flourishing wetlands on the site of the old swamp, regenerated with a $17.5 million investment from Marrickville Council in 2003.

The residents have begun a campaign to protect it, backed by local Greens councillors.

An RTA spokesman defended the proposal, saying it was only the beginning of ''an 18-month process which will include significant community engagement before the environmental assessment is completed''.

The authority's feasibility study also includes a duplicate four-lane westbound tunnel, from Earlwood to Arncliffe.

A plan by consultants Evans and Peck, under consideration by the Government, would lead to the M4 East tunnel snaking its way from Strathfield to the Anzac Bridge, and another joining that tunnel to the M5 East under Enmore, Stanmore and Annandale.

''This just the starting point. You're actually looking at a much bigger problem,'' said Leah Mason, of the Marrickville Transport Action Group. ''You're actually looking at a much bigger problem.''

For Pdf of proposed motorways - www.smh.com.au/pdf/roadsweb.pdf

Source: www.smh.com.au/national/parents-worry-childrens-future-sold-up-the-river-20100115-mcgm.html

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Parents worry children's future sold up the river

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