After Warradale, no thanks!

I used to live at Warradale before we moved here to Marion.  I'm not at all keen on this underpass idea. In Warradale we lived two streets back from an underpass. My Dad and my uncle are with the Police, so we've been taught from an early age to steer clear of them. 

I have been in the Warradale one though. Aside from the way people treat the underpass, which is usually as somewhere to vomit or go to the toilet, the one at Warradale has some kind of drug house nearby.  What it means is that people go there to Warradale to score and use the underpass as a safe space for drug taking.  There was always drug paraphenalia down there.

I used to walk down to the next station to use the zig zag crossing closer to Brighton Road rather than use it - which was ridiculous really because we wanted something close to public transport, then you're walking for miles.

We'll be doing the same here if this goes ahead - which is really annoying!  We bought this place because we hoped to send Eamon (2) to Sacred Heart when he's old enough.  We thought it would a great, safe place to live where we could actually walk our kids to school of a morning.  

I'm apprehensive of going into any sort of underpass, especially on my own.

We're glad that the residents here got together to talk about this.  If we hadn't gotten their flyer through our letterbox we would never have known what was being planned.  What kind of consultation is that?

We live two streets back and you think you can just ram through an underpass and no-one will be any the wiser? These people must think we're idiots.

I heard from the meeting that they consulted Westminster, which is good, but I don't imagine they'd be for it. They've got loads of parents there who would feel just as worried as I do about what could happen to their kids.

I know that a lot of people are not aware of some of the issues that we have even in this area, but because I'm from a police family I'm probably more aware than other parents of some of the stuff that can go on.

By all means give us some grade separation - maybe an overpass - as well as a crossing.  I'll use a level crossing with Eamon if we're walking together and when he's old enough I'll tell him to use an overpass or teach him how to cross safely when he's in school.  But what am I supposed to teach him about being stuck in a tunnel with someone who's six foot tall and 32 when he's a young boy of 38-40 kilos? 
The only thing I can teach him is what my Dad told me - steer clear of it! 

Olivia, Abbeville Terrace

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