Examination of Witnesses (Questions 9140
- 9159)
9140. Ms Singleton: I will accept that
at the moment, yes, and look for the noise response.
9141. Chairman: Thank you for your very
full and detailed contribution. We will now move on unless, Ms
Lieven, you want to add anything?
9142. Ms Lieven: No, Sir.
9143. Chairman: Thank you for your presentation.
We will now move on to the second petitioner which is the Southend
Arterial Road Action Group.
The Petition of Southend Arterial Road
Action Group.
The Petitioners appeared in person.
9144. Chairman: Would you like to outline
the petition for us, Mr Mould?
9145. Mr Mould: Yes. The Petitioners
are residents of houses which are alongside these properties here
which are alongside a cul-de-sac which itself lies alongside the
Southend Arterial route which is this strategic road which you
see here running in a north-south direction across here, the Eastern
mainline.[15]
9146. Crossrail is proposing to carry out works
to extend and modernise existing sidings at Gidea Park. I wonder
if we can put up, please, photograph number six which I am going
to come to in a minute.[16]
The sidings are to the London side of the area here. We will come
to the photograph in a minute and the proposal is that we will
provide road access to the worksite for the extension of the sidings
at Gidea Park along Hall Road which is to be constructed along
this line. This is the area of the existing sidings at Gidea Park,
just to the north of the eastern mainline. The sidings are to
be extended so that they embrace this area here and will provide
adequate stabling facilities for Crossrail trains.
9147. The works to the sidings involve modernisation
of the tracks and sidings here and some engineering works to extend
a cutting and provide attaining walls along this area here for
that purpose. The majority of the railway works in this area will
be served by rail and that will include the rails themselves,
the ballast and other supplies of that kind. However, ready mix
concrete will need to be brought in by road and the proposal is
that concrete mixers should gain access from the arterial road,
which you can see running here, we are looking in an easterly
direction, which will gain access via Hall Road which will be
served for part of its length by the cul-de-sac that I showed
you a few moments ago. The concern of the residents, put shortly,
is with concrete lorries and other smaller construction traffic
that will be using that Hall Road route and going past those houses
on the cul-de-sac during the 20 month or so period of the construction
phase.
9148. Very briefly, just to give you a little
bit more information before I hand over to Mrs Kemp, it is a 20
month construction phase and the peak period of that is about
three months and during that peak period we are expecting about
12 concrete lorries a day along the Hall Road. Outside the peak
period, so for the remaining 17 months, we are expecting about
four concrete lorries a day and there will be other smaller vans
and vehicles of that kind which will be passing along the Hall
Road on a daily basis from time to time to serve the works.
9149. The only other point to make, just so
that you are completely in the picture, is there will be some
items of very heavy plant and machinery which we will need to
transport to a point just to the north of the over-bridge where
they can be offloaded and brought along the Hall Road on to the
site. They will not pass along the cul-de-sac, they will pass
from a marked-off lane on the Arterial Road itself over the verge
and on to the Hall Road and we expect that to be a relatively
infrequent occurrence, as few as two inward deliveries and two
outward deliveries as the reasonable minimum that we can expect.
As you will expect with coning off a lane on a busy road on a
temporary basis for up to a day, we hope somewhat less, that will
be dealt with in close consultation with the police and with the
highway authorities. We would expect to give proper prior notice
to the residents themselves on those few occasions when that would
need to be done so they know what is going to happen and they
can prepare themselves for that. I am afraid that is a somewhat
rushed introduction to this Petition but I hope that gives some
sense of where we are in relation to this.
9150. Chairman: You are all petitioners,
are you not, and you can all speak.
9151. Ms Kemp: Yes. I am afraid I have
not got a lot of voice.
9152. Chairman: Can I start by saying
do not be nervous and, if you are, so are we.
9153. Ms Kemp: It is not nerves, I have
got a thyroid problem.
9154. Chairman: As long as you speak
loudly enough, and if you do not we will ask you to speak up a
bit.
9155. Ms Kemp: My voice tends to disappear
as I am talking.
9156. Chairman: As I say, do not worry,
just take your time, but not too much time because I am going
to ask for your indulgence and your help. We have got 17 minutes
before the Committee is supposed to rise and we can only expect
the stenographers to stay on for 10 or 15 minutes beyond that
otherwise we cannot get the evidence printed for the following
day. I just need to know how long you think you are going to take
either individually or collectively.
9157. Ms Kemp: I will be as succinct
as I can.
9158. Chairman: I just want you to be
aware of the time.
9159. Ms Kemp: Compared to the last area
we are quite small so we should be able to be fairly succinct
on this.
15 Crossrail Ref: P87, Oblique aerial view of the
Southend Arterial Road from the south (HAVGLB-35804-007). Back
16
Crossrail Ref: P87, Oblique aerial view of Gidea Park sidings
from the southwest (HAVGLB-35804-006). Back
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