Examination of Witnesses (Questions 7490
- 7499)
The Petition of the London Borough of Newham
Mr Neil Cameron appeared on behalf of the Petitioner
Sharpe Pritchard appeared as Agent
7490. Chairman: Good morning. Today we
are supposed to be hearing the Petition of the London Borough
of Newham. Mr Elvin, do you want to say anything?
7491. Mr Elvin: Only to say that again
matters have resolved themselves at the last minute and Mr Cameron,
who appears for the Petitioner—the Committee has come across
Mr Cameron on a number of occasions of course—will briefly
explain the position. We have offered undertakings in relation
to trains now stopping at Maryland Station, just east of Stratford;
on the use of local labour wherever possible and lawful; and on
certain other matters; and we have provided information relating
to airborne noise and the like, which has satisfied Newham. Mr
Cameron will explain his position and if I can assist you any
further, then I will.
7492. Chairman: Thank you. Mr Cameron.
7493. Mr Cameron: Sir, that is right,
that Newham is satisfied on a number of issues; but if you will
allow me, sir, can I explain why Newham is satisfied, without
wishing to take up too much of the Committee's time? Sir, the
issues that Newham wish to raise are the following. First, train
services at Maryland Station; station accessibility; matters relating
to Custom House Station; integration with the Olympic Proposals;
the revised tunnelling strategy; employment of local labour and
diversity issues; and airborne noise attributable to the operation
of the railway.
7494. Sir, on those issues, as far as the Maryland
Station is concerned Crossrail initially indicated that trains
would not stop there because of a problem with the platform and
in particular platform length, and as a result existing services
would not run and there would be a significant reduction. Newham
were understandably concerned about that but what Crossrail have
now undertaken is to investigate selective door opening and if
selective door opening is possible to serve the Maryland Station.
Sir, that has satisfied Newham.
7495. The next issue is station accessibility.
That is a matter of great concern to Newham and existing stations,
particularly Maryland, Manor Park and Forest Gate. We understand,
sir, that that is going to be dealt with as a generic issue and
therefore it is not appropriate for us to pursue it today, but
it is still a matter of very great concern to the London Borough
of Newham, and we note the remarks that you made, sir, and others
have made when considering the cases of other Petitioners on that
issue.
7496. Sir, as far as Custom House Station is
concerned, Newham Council were concerned about integration of
the new station with proposed development and the possibility
of a bus interchange and an undertaking has now been given and
that satisfies Newham's concerns.
7497. As far as the Olympics are concerned,
a great many of the Olympic venues will be sited in Newham, close
to Stratford, and the Council understand that a memorandum of
agreement is being drawn up between Crossrail and the Olympic
projects, and what Newham would like to do is to preserve that
position on that issue pending publication of the memorandum.
There is not much else they can do.
7498. As far as the revised tunnelling strategy
is concerned, the reason that Newham are particularly interested
is that they do not yet understand the full implications for Newham.
On 30 March the Secretary of State made a statement on the revised
tunnelling strategy, as you will know, sir, and he indicated that
Crossrail would not need to launch tunnel boring machines from
Hanbury Street in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. As a result
of that change it is likely that the duration of the works at
the Limmo Peninsula in Newham will increase and what the Secretary
of State indicated was that an Environmental Assessment to the
alternative strategy would be published in due course, and Newham
have not yet received details—and that is not a criticism
of the Promoter, it takes time to air that—so again we would
like to reserve our position until we can see the details, which
will be sent to us in due course.
7499. As far as local labour is concerned, Newham's
concern here is that the employment and other benefits of the
project should be accessible to all and particularly in the context
of Newham, where employment rates are lower and the indices of
deprivation indicate greater deprivation than in other parts of
London. That is why Newham pursued this issue.
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