Examination of Witnesses (Questions 9160
- 9179)
9160. Chairman: Okay. If you would like
to start now.
9161. Ms Kemp: Okay. I do not know if
you are able to do a close-up on this picture on the screen of
the cul-de-sac itself because that would be helpful.[17]
As you can see, coming along the 127, that is purely an access
road for us. It is very well screened. It is a very tight bend
to get into it. You have traffic lights below the railway line,
which is low on the picture, and when the traffic leaves, and
we worked out roughly 1,500 an hour pass on that side of the road
only, by the time where you see the first piece of writing they
are hitting 40mph. As we come down that road, and we have to turn
in because they do not know it is there, there is another road
just past that, it is very dangerous for us to turn in.
9162. Our main problem with what Crossrail want
to do is bringing large lorries in. We did persuade them that
they could not get low-loaders in there because we have trouble
getting our own cars round that corner. We are now dealing with
concrete mixers and they are widening the gap but, as you can
see, it is a hairpin bend and as you come round it you have to
be careful of cars coming up the road. It is a tiny road. It is
purely for residents. To narrow the hairpin to get a concrete
mixer round there, we do have a man here who is a lorry driver
and very experienced on those and he can tell you about that.
We are tiny but it is the impact on us because we have got nowhere
to go, it is the only way in. We cannot park while they are doing
it. They have suggested we can but that will be an impossibility.
We have roughly 28 cars down that street, which is 18 houses.
We are struggling to park at the moment and when visitors come
in. Widening the entrance, widening the road, is not going to
make an awful lot of difference. With concrete mixers coming past
there is going to be very little room to get through. Although
I know Crossrail is going to contradict us, we have done the measurements.
Some people have got pretty good cars down there and with 12 cement
mixers coming in and out with a very short space between parked
cars and those going past, nobody is happy. If I could ask Frank
to speak about the lorries, he will be able to tell you about
that and then we can sum up the other aspects.
9163. Mr Lunnon: With the way you come
in, even our dustcart cannot turn that way, they have to reverse
him up the Arterial and then into our bit. Naturally a dustcart
does not weigh as much as a concrete lorry and where our houses
are it was an old pond and weed bed sort of thing so the ground
there is very soft anyway, even the dustcart churns it up a bit
on the tarmac. You are talking about bigger lorries trying to
come in there. The ground is just not going to take it anyway.
9164. The turning circle on a cement mixer,
kerb to kerb, is roughly about 26/27 feet, that is standing kerb
turning circle but not motional turning. If he is coming down
the Arterial and he has got to come in, he cannot turn the wheel
that quick to come round but it is kerb to kerb. With a cement
mixer the drum is rotating round, if it tried to take it in too
quick it would be on its side. That is roughly all I can tell
you. As they say, they are trying to cut off to make the entrance
wider but at the same time they are making it so it is more of
a hairpin turn to get a lorry in there.
9165. Chairman: Thank you.
9166. Ms Kemp: The actual aspects of
the safety part of that is that at 40 miles an hour the cars come
in behind you—When we are coming over the bridge which is
quite a way before our entrance we have to start braking and indicating.
Even last week one of the visitors to our road was trying to get
in but the person behind them was so tight and not slowing down
that as they took the bend they went straight through across the
road and into the trees and bushes. If this is a concrete mixer
with traffic coming up behind it, the main part of it, it is not
just the speed as you come over the bridge you are blind to what
is going on on the other side. You cannot see that on there. Where
it says the Arterial Road that is the end of the bridge. That
is sloping down there so as traffic comes over the bridge you
cannot see. There is a turning there so if a concrete mixer is
slowing down almost to a stop, with the amount of traffic behind
it and the speed, we are very conscious of dangerous pile-ups
there on that aspect.
9167. If I could pass you on because I really
have lost my voice.
9168. Chairman: Mr Lunnon, it is a made-up
road?
9169. Mr Lunnon: Pardon?
9170. Chairman: It is fully made-up.
It is an adapted road?
9171. Ms Kemp: No, it is not.
9172. Mr Lunnon: It is only partly made
up of concrete, partly of tarmac.
9173. Chairman: It is not a fully adapted
road?
9174. Mr Lunnon: It is not a fully adapted
road, not to take heavy vehicles of that calibre. We had a chat
to Crossrail and they said they were going to dig it out and make
it more secure and put a better road surface in there. As I say,
where are we going to park our cars while they are doing that?
They will need a 360 machine in there to load up, eight-wheel
tippers which are 32 tonnes.
9175. Ms Kemp: Could we show you this?
You have not seen the road yet. You can see the difference. If
you look at the original entrance to it before it was widened,
the original entrance to this is where you have the line coming
up the Arterial and turning in, the outside edge of that—it
is very difficult to show it on that, it is easier on here—is
the original entrance.[18]
9176. Mr Pink: Where it says "Existing
kerb line".
9177. Ms Kemp: Yes. The hairpin bend
on there is much tighter and we have trouble negotiating a normal
car round the bend as it is now. We have to hit that corner to
start turning on that kerb. At 20 miles an hour is the first time
we can start to turn because you have a 40 mile an hour set of
traffic behind you. You have to hit the brakes as you go around
that corner to get round. The next diagram is a concrete mixer
going round there very neatly.[19]
9178. We live there and we know the dangers
of that round and we know the dangers of the traffic coming along
behind on the Arterial. We were comparing how busy the road was
to a small road leading up to the station. 1,500 cars per hour
go past that entrance, not every hour of the day but the majority
that is, most of the day. It is difficult for us to get out. We
can sometimes sit there for 10 minutes before we can get out in
traffic. Now you know what we are talking about I will pass you
over to Ray Pink.
9179. Mr Pink: In view of the time I
will try and be fairly brief. Background to what we are discussing
here is the residents of the cul-de-sac of Southend Arterial Road
had a meeting with Crossrail on 10 March 2005, 14 months ago,
soon after we first learned of the impact of what they are now
trying to do.
17 Committee Ref: A107, Aerial Photograph of the Southend
Arterial Road (SCN20060523-003). Back
18
Committee Ref: A107, Gidea Park Worksite Notional Temporary Access
(HAVGLB-35804-005). Back
19
Committee Ref: A107 Gidea Park Worksite Notional Temporary Access
(HAVGLB-35804-014). Back
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