Parents concerned pollution from proposed Westconnex exhaust stack near school will harm children
Hundreds of parents in Sydney’s inner-west are planning to lodge an official opposition to a Westconnex exhaust stack which they fear will blanket their children’s school and affect their health.
The exhaust stack will sit less than 200 metres from Rozelle Public School on Victoria Road at the eastern side of the bridge.
The Westconnex tunnel will run underneath Victoria Road, connecting the Anzac Bridge and Westconnex with the Iron Cove Bridge.
“I have a little boy he is six years old, he has just started at Rozelle Public School and my biggest fear is his health,” Jess Ferrao told 9NEWS.
As well as the school which has 600 students, a pre-school, hundreds of homes and the bustling Darling Street are in the vicinity of the stack.
Many parents are also concerned about how children with asthma will cope.
However, Westconnex Minister Stuart Ayres says there is no health risk despite the pollution not being filtered.
“Very few ventilation facilities anywhere in the world are built with filtration because the technology is so good,” Mr Ayres said.
"What we are seeing around these ventilation facilities is cleaner air that what you get on ground level at Parramatta road today."
Some parents are now planning to lodge an official submission opposing the current design of the tunnel.
Community backlash forced the government to ditch plans for a tunnel next to a local high school in Leichhardt.
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