Examination of Witnesses (Questions 9960
- 9979)
9960. Dr Pedretti: The assumption about
tunnels is still somewhat puzzling. If we were designing it all
over again today—
9961. Mr Liddell-Grainger: Dr Pedretti,
I am sorry, I am going to stop you. This has been gone through.
You brought this up this morning as well, Dr Pedretti.
9962. Dr Pedretti: I have not brought
up the Thames Gateway at all.
9963. Mr Liddell-Grainger: The Thames
Gateway?
9964. Dr Pedretti: That is what I have
just had as an answer. The reason we have a tunnel is because
of the Isle of Dogs and the Thames Gateway project. Both of those
are to the south, I understand.
9965. Mr Liddell-Grainger: Dr Pedretti,
it is the Hybrid Bill, we will look at it. The evidence you have
asked for you have got. I am sorry, I do not class this as part
of the Bill. It is part of the Bill but not at this stage. If
you have any particular questions—
9966. Dr Pedretti: It is part of this
thing about reiterating and about consultation. I am part of a
group of people that would have been seriously affected by the
Hanbury Street shaft. The whole of that community was purposely
excluded from consultation until Brick Lane, second round.
9967. Mr Liddell-Grainger: Dr Pedretti,
we have heard this evidence. We accept that you do not want the
tunnel. We accept that you do not want the tunnel near you. We
have heard your evidence. We accept that. As the Committee we
will make a decision on what we have heard from you. Have you
anything new to add?
9968. Dr Pedretti: Let me ask it as two
questions. One which is a general one, which remains. Whitechapel
Station is presupposed in all the options you have considered
on page 7 of the same document, they all assume a tunnel from
Liverpool Street to Whitechapel. When was the decision made that
there would be a station in Whitechapel?[66]
(Mr Berryman) I could not tell
you exactly. It would have been sometime in 2002, I would imagine.
I have to say that having a station at Whitechapel is a fairly
crucial point in the development of the network to allow the various
train services to interact with one another. So the East London
Line and the District Line connect to Whitechapel. The object
of the exercise is to improve that connectivity.
9969. Mr Liddell-Grainger: May I say
to both of you, we will take that into consideration. The points
have been made; the Committee will look at that.
9970. Dr Pedretti: There was a mention
earlier of three substandard curves—
9971. Mr Liddell-Grainger: We have discussed
that already.
9972. Dr Pedretti: I am saying the curve
northwards was described as substandard by Mr Berryman last week
in connection with some discussions. Thank you.
9973. Mr Liddell-Grainger: Thank you
very much indeed.
The witness withdrew
9974. Mr Lidddell-Grainger: I intend
now to go through the other witnesses. We have very roughly 25
minutes before we step down. I would remind Petitioners, please,
if you have new things to say, say them; if they are repeated
I will stop you.
9975. Mr Elvin: I do not want to put
a spanner in the works but I think that Mr Philpott would like
some guidance from the Committee as to when you would like to
hear his short closing. Would you like that at the end of the
day?
9976. Mr Lidddell-Grainger: Mr Philpott,
my deepest apologies. Thank you, Mr Elvin, for pulling me up short.
9977. Mr Elvin: I was proposing to close
at the end of the day rather than any other time.
9978. Mr Lidddell-Grainger: I know you
were, and I do apologise to Mr Philpott.
9979. Mr Philpott: I am aware that some
of those behind me are not necessarily part of this Petition and
may have certain points. Sir, there are three points that I want
to make in closing, and I will try and keep this brief. The first
is that this alignment runs through what is clearly, even in terms
of central London, a very sensitive location. It includes very
dense areas of residential development, an unusually concentrated
number of listed buildings and a conservation area, and also a
lot of small businesses, small businesses along the streets that
are affected, which, by their very nature, are sensitive to disruptions
of traffic use and so on. It seems to us to be pretty clear that
it is engineering considerations rather than the environmental
impacts upon ground which have been the driving force in choosing
this particular alignment and this location for the shaft site.
We say that if one were looking at the above ground environmental
impacts as a driving factor one would not have settled
on Hanbury Street.
66 Crossrail Information Paper A1 Development of the
Crossrail Route, Eastern Corridors para 2.3, http://billdocuments.crossrail.co.uk/
(LINEWD-IPA1-001). Back
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