More than a dozen residents told the panel today about the direct impacts the East West Link will have on their homes, families and lives.
Christine Di Muccio, who lives with her family in Parkville West, described to the panel the day she and her husband let their children cross Manningham Street to play in the playground near Ross Straw Field opposite their home.
“They could access the playground without us. It was a proud milestone. It meant their world had started to expand.”
Di Muccio said families like hers are being asked to bear personal losses for an undetermined ‘public good’. Flyovers will pass above Ross Straw Field near their home connecting the tunnel to CityLink.
Helen Masters spoke of the personal impact on two properties she owns on Gold Street. One of the properties is her three-level home with a view of the historic shot tower.
“It’s a terrific place to live,” she said, but it will be in direct line of traffic noise from the Hoddle Street flyover of which she will have new panoramic views.
David and Millie Boag offered to serve a cup of tea to the members of the hearings panel at their home. They believe they will live four metres from a temporary road during the three to five years of construction.
Boag told the panel “our children will be studying the final years of school when this goes on”.
Susan White described her lived experience of construction. She told the panel there will be off-ramps 30m from her windows.
Lina Maroun lives in Manningham Street in a property she bought as an investment for her child. The property will not be acquired, but will almost certainly lose value do to its proximity to the project.
She says she spoke with LMA and they said they were unable to help. “Each body that we talk to refers us to someone else.”
Jennifer Bowen lives 150 metres from the proposed flyover at Hoddle St and is very concerned about air pollution and noise.
Meg Colasante and Anise Confait live in Bent Street just tens of metres from the viaduct Prime Minister Abbott declared, on ABC local radio in March, would be funded.
Christopher Dalli spoke about being forced to move away from the construction zone in Ross Straw Field and trying to rent his property. He said he and his neighbours cant sell their homes without incurring financial losses.
The hearings will continue for four more days after which the panel has 30 days to make a recommendation to the Planning Minister on whether he should approve permits for the project.
(Thanks to the bloggers today who captured the statements of these presenters and others.)
East West Link Blog 
My long working life has been devoted to creating things visual, so it is no wonder that it is the images from many days of the Assessment Panel hearings that stay in my mind. Many of the pictures presented told much more than their traditional “one thousand words” about the Linking Melbourne Authority’s attempts to mislead the public; pictures revealing the devastation the East West Link would bring to large areas of Melbourne. Some PowerPoint presentations were strong, but for me the most telling image was not on screen, but in the reality of the backs of a middle-aged couple presenting their case for protecting the tiny residential section of Royal Park where they live. Theirs was the typically Australian situation of an inarticulate male having his case put forward by a woman. Desperate to save their long-established lifestyle in a 1920’s family home, she struggled to control her tears over the impending loss of their lifestyle. The image that struck me from my viewpoint behind them was of a small, anonymous and vulnerable feminine back being gently rubbed by a large masculine hand. No, that hand couldn’t stem the uncontrollable sobs that punctuated her otherwise rational presentation about their plight, but the image of its attempts to comfort her will stay with me forever. The Panel were visibly touched. If this couple didn’t persuade them to recommend that this project shouldn’t go ahead then I don’t know what could possibly convince them.