Examination of Witnesses (Questions 8291
- 8299)
8291. Sir Peter Soulsby: Gentlemen, good
morning. I intend to suspend the Committee for about 15 minutes
at a convenient point after 11.30 so that everyone can have the
opportunity to have coffee if they wish. The Committee has a long
day ahead. We are beginning with hearing the Petition of the London
Borough of Bexley. We will also be having the first of our evening
sessions at 6 pm when the Committee will be hearing a number of
other petitions from mostly individuals.
8292. Mr Elvin, would you, as counsel for the
Promoter, like to set this petition in context for us.
8293. Mr Elvin: Before dealing with the
petition, may I alert the Committee to one point of information.
A new guidance note on the land disposal policy to accompany the
relevant information paper has been prepared and either is in
the process of being put on the website and sent to your clerk
or has already been sent. If not, it will be done shortly, probably
this week. That guidance note will provide additional information
on the Department's policy on land disposal and should be read
together with the IP. It will be available from the website, as
with all the other IPs.
8294. Sir Peter Soulsby: Thank you very
much. We will note it and number it when it arrives.
8295. Mr Elvin: Sir, turning to the Petition
for the London Borough of Bexley, there are two main issues raised
by the Petition and there are a number of minor issues as well.
The two main issues are, firstly, the traffic implications of
Crossrail at Abbey Wood Station—and that follows on slightly
from the London Borough of Greenwich's Petition last week—and,
secondly, the slightly more complex question, in the light of
the Instruction to the Committee from the House of Commons, as
to whether Crossrail should be extended beyond the terminus approved
at second reading from Abbey Wood to Ebbsfleet.
8296. On the issue of highways, could I ask
the Committee to look at plan SE8(i) from the main Environmental
Statement, volume 4b, and zoom in, please, on the Abbey Wood Station.[1]
Mr Taylor will be dealing in due course with the highways issues
in his usual way. May I remind the Committee that similar issues
were raised last week by Greenwich. The issues at Abbey Wood are
slightly complicated, because of course, as you see from the pink
line that runs down the centre of the screen, the Abbey Wood Station
falls partly within the remit of the London Borough of Greenwich
and partly within the London Borough of Bexley, as does the road
network around Abbey Wood. Accordingly, any solution and any issues
regarding that have to be agreed between both boroughs, as well
as the Department and Crossrail.
8297. You will recall from last week (Day 30,
paragraphs 8012 to 8016 in Mr Chard's evidence) that Mr Chard
told you, in the light of the draft Mouchel's report, that Greenwich
had yet to reach a concluded view on the issues. They did not
have a report in final form, and Greenwich accepted a simple undertaking
by the Department that discussions would continue—because
of course Greenwich has yet to formulate its final views. It is
difficult, we would suggest, to see how anything else sensibly
could be done, so far as Bexley is concerned, in the light of
that position with Greenwich. We have offered Bexley an undertaking
in broadly similar terms to that offered to Greenwich last week,
but, as yet, that undertaking has not been accepted, and no doubt
Mr Cameron will explain to you in due course why Bexley should
be in a different position to Greenwich, given the common issues.
8298. On the extension, if the Committee will
forgive me, I am going to spend a little bit more time, because
it does involve the Instruction to the Committee. Although Ebbsfleet
was originally proposed as the terminus for the south-east limb
of Crossrail, this was altered before the Bill was deposited,
and the Bill of course fixes the south-east terminus at Abbey
Wood. That terminus is part of the principle of the Bill, as the
Committee will be aware, fixed and, indeed, debated at second
reading and at the Instruction debate on 12 January of this year.
8299. Perhaps we could have page 124 from the
main Environmental Statement, and zoom in on figure 6.3.[2]
This is a slightly overcomplicated plan because it shows all the
options considered for the eastern route but I want to home in
on the Abbey Wood to Ebbsfleet element at the bottom left-hand
side of the plan. There you can see what was originally proposed
between Abbey Wood and Ebbsfleet, quite an additional extent of
track integrating ultimately with the North Kent Line. Ebbsfleet
was removed following a review in 2004.
1 Crossrail Environmental Statement, Abbey Wood Station-Key
Environmental Features http://billdocuments.crossrail.co.uk (LINEWD-ES17-125). Back
2
Crossrail Environmental Statement, p124, Fig 6.3 Eastern Route
Options, http://billdocuments.crossrail.co.uk (LINEWD-ES08-018). Back
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