We have a beautiful green space in Toronto, Lake Macquarie (Puntei Park) near our house adjacent to natural woodland. It harbours many species of plant, insects and small animals and is a beautiful space to walk your dog, go walking, have a picnic etc. As a natural flood plain, our park allows clean rainwater to flow into the ground, into the stream and then on into our wonderful lake. The construction of hard-surface courts will, obviously compromise the natural drainage of the area.

Our council want to build an open air basketball/Netball/Skateboard park on it (A "Multi-purpose half-court").

We've really got to stop these councils from ruining our environment in such an irresponsible manner.

Local residents enjoy walking across the field, walking their dogs, enjoying the peace and quiet, looking at the birds, flowers, butterflies, taking their young kids for a picnic etc.

The council want to destroy all this because an external consultancy has told them that they need at least one "multi-purpose half court" per 1,500 people.

So they have, in their infinite wisdom, decided to destroy our beautiful park so a few kids can play basketball even though there are many such facilities already available locally.

Well, I think it's about time we said "NO' to this kind of unnecessary damage to our ecosystem, which is already under threat.

People need quiet green spaces. Our wildlife need quiet green spaces.

Let's say "No" to tarmac and "Yes" to grass and trees and the wildlife that come with it.

Please support me and send a strong message to Lake Macquarie council.

"Leave our green spaces alone".

They should be creating more spaces such as this, not destroying the few that we have.