Around 150 local residents attended the public meeting at Arlington Reserve on Saturday morning.
They were addressed by concerned residents from the Save Arlington Reserve Action Group, as well as local Councillors – Labor Mayor Sam Iskandar, Greens West Ward Councillor Marika Kontellis and Labor West Ward Councillor Emanuel Tsardoulias.
Residents outlined their concerns about the artificial turf and how an increase in the use of Arlington Reserve for football would affect neighbourhood amenity.
Residents also expressed their concerns about the lack of direct consultation prior to the proposal being passed in the recent Council budget.
The Mayor, Sam Iskandar attempted to justify the installtion of artificial turf with an argument that natural grass causes asthma!
The meeting passed the following resolution unanimously:
This meeting of concerned residents calls on Marrickville Council to reverse the budget allocation to resurface Arlington Recreational Reserve with synthetic turf and to undertake extensive and comprehensive community consultation whenever it is proposing changes to Arlington Recreational Reserve.
Local Residents gather at Arlington Reserve to oppose artificial turf
There is now a formal Marrickville Council consultation about the proposal that closes on the 4 September.
You can view the plans here and comment online here.
There will be a consultation meeting at Arlington Reserve between 9am and 12 Noon on Sunday 16 August. Council officers will be available to discuss the draft improvement plan proposals and answer questions.
It is very important to put in a comment or attend the consultation to make your concerns known.
Save Arlington Reserve 
August 14, 2009 at 7:34 pm |
I live in Williams Parade and have done so for the last 3.5 years. My wife and I were attracted to this location due to the abundance of open space in the immediate area and the friendly quiet location.
I am strongly against this project due to the flow on effects it will create such as the Reserve no longer being available to rate payers for their leisurely use but most of all the traffic chaos it will create on a daily/nightly basis in an already busy street where parking is a premium especially from about 3pm in the afternoon.
Any soccer match during the soccer season on a saturday is the perfect representation of what every night and day will be like if this project goes ahead- cars double parked, near misses of cars trying to get around double parked cars, people walking out in front of cars with no care in the world, rubbish being left on the street, people congregating around parked cars, no car parking available for residents, hoons in cars travelling at excessive speeds up Wililams parade (noramlly a peaceful street) with no regard for public safety. I did not move to this lovely spot to have to deal with this every day.
The density of living in this immediate area simply cannot cater for the influx of vehicles. Perhaps Council should do some traffic modelling. If they do and include all existing traffic movements from apartments/houses/residents as they should I am sure it will show that Williams Parade will not cope with the additional traffic. Again, where are all these cars going to park when the streets are already full.
On another point, my Father played football on this Reserve some 50 years ago. He says not much has changed on this ground in that time. Lets face it, the only reason this project is advocated by Council is so that it can become another revenue stream. The next thing you know they will be putting parking meters in Williams Parade to really put some coin in their coffers. Then our visitors have to cough up money to visit. When will it end.