Examination of Witnesses (Questions 10060
- 10079)
10060. Dealing with Crossrail has been extremely
frustrating and when they have produced information it has been
misleading. Most professional bodies have rules of professional
conduct and I am sure Crossrail must have some but my analogy
for dealing with Crossrail is that they were a doctor I think
they would have been struck off. For the sake of the record I
do not accept any of the responses I have been given from this
petition; I would just like that on the record. From hearing a
couple of the bits of information today I am intrigued about why
as the Select Committee when you did your site assessment you
were not shown around the Woodseer Street site. It seems like
you were marched straight past it, and, while they explained about
changes as a consequence of consultation, they did not say about
any of the changes as a consequence of consultation in the Spitalfields
area.
10061. Mr Liddell-Grainger: Ms Hudson,
could you come on to what you want us to do? The consultation
I accept. I am not sure we can do much about what has happened
but what we need to know is what you and the people you represent
want. Can you come on to that?
10062. Ms Hudson: Yes. I think the consultation
is endemic about their behaviour and their approach, so I do think
it is important even though it is historical. From my experience
to date and the evidence presented to the Select Committee I think
it is clear that Crossrail have not done their job properly regarding
consultation, alignment and impact, especially in our area. The
decision on this route alignment and the placement of the ventilation
shaft is going to have a significant effect on our community in
terms of health, noise, vibration. You have heard it all before.
It really is a residential community; you have walked around there,
so wherever you place a ventilation shaft it is going to have
a huge impact on the restaurants and all the local shops.
10063. I think it is unfair on the community
to impose this without proper evaluations on some basic fundamental
principles, such as alignment and impact. I am really glad I have
not got your job because I think it is completely unfair for you
as a Select Committee to be asked to make a decision based on
woefully inadequate information. What we would like you to do
is not to decide. We suddenly seem to have got into the situation,
is it Hanbury or Woodseer? It should not even be that. I think
Crossrail need to go back and look at all the alternative options
and the comparisons should be made in a fair and transparent way,
like for like, not just what they are cherry-picking for the latest
one. That certainly has not been done in terms of the impact and
the various other things. This is not just about whether it is
Woodseer or Hanbury but to explore the Bishop's Square and also
the southern route which was brought up again this morning. We
would like this to be done in a fair and transparent way. That
is what we would like you to do.
10064. Mr Liddell-Grainger: Thank you
very much indeed, Ms Hudson. Mr Elvin, have you anything to contribute?
10065. Mr Elvin: There is nothing I want
to ask the Petitioner. I do not want to get into a debate about
the pros and cons of the consultation. The Committee has our picture.
I think what may be helpful is that I have been given a briefing
note on the consultation activities in the Spitalfields area and
I am going to ask for it to be ingested into the system so that
the Select Committee can have it available because it summarises
specifically the consultation activities in the Spitalfields area
and I will make sure copies are available for tomorrow.
10066. Mr Liddell-Grainger: If you could,
please, Mr Elvin. I think Ms Hudson has brought up some useful
points that we do need to look at.
10067. Mr Elvin: This is about 12, 14
pages. It will give you a little more detail as to what has happened.
10068. Mr Liddell-Grainger: If you could
and if you would let the Clerk have it.
10069. Mr Elvin: I will make sure that
the Petitioner gets a copy as well.
10070. Ms Hudson: Thank you. Could I
just make one comment on that? As I said, it is a residential
area and people work locally. They do not go through Liverpool
Street, they do not even use Whitechapel and the other consultation
places were 25 minutes' walk away.
10071. Mr Liddell-Grainger: Thank you
very much, Ms Hudson. That is very kind. I would like to call
now Mr and Mrs Critchley.
The Petition of H J and S F Critchley
Mr and Mrs Critchley appeared in person
10072. Mrs Critchley: I am Sandy Critchley
and this is my husband John. I am going to read this presentation.
10073. Mr Liddell-Grainger: This document
will be A116.
10074. Mrs Critchley: We both live at
14 Wilkes Street. Our house is above one of the proposed tunnels
according to the currently planned route. We do not intend to
take a great deal of your time but there are several important
points I would like to make. We are very pleased and relieved
that the decision has been taken not to actually tunnel from the
Hanbury Street site, but under current plans, as you have heard,
there will still be a huge hole there with a massive amount of
spoil to be taken away by lorry through narrow streets and past
residential blocks and primary schools.
10075. We have a vibrant and multi-racial residential
and business community in Spitalfields and for centuries it has
been an area where immigrants live after arriving in Britain.
We all rub along together really well and personally we believe
that our community would still be devastated by the remaining
ventilation shaft and its associated work at that site in Hanbury
Street. Now that Crossrail have made the decision not to tunnel
from the middle as well as from both ends there is absolutely
no reason for them to stick to the planned benchmark route. We
believe that Crossrail have not adequately investigated the alternative
routes that would avoid disruption and damage in our community.
Why can the more northerly Woodseer route under the old Truman
Brewery not be used? In addition to other advantages, as you may
have seen from the photographs, the area is hardly used by the
public at all. It is not on the way to anywhere. There are no
supermarkets down the end of that road, there are no shops, there
are no schools. It is very little frequented by the public. The
reasons quoted so far by Crossrail for not using that route still
do not seem in the least credible, especially, again, after seeing
the aerial photos.
10076. As you have heard, there is also a potential
southerly route following the District Line under Whitechapel
Road. Crossrail do not appear to have given this any serious consideration
at all. We look to you, our elected representatives, to make sure
that Crossrail explore all the alternatives thoroughly.
10077. We moved to Spitalfields nine years ago
to be near our daughter who was then a medical student and she
is now a junior surgeon at the Royal London Hospital. It was the
only reasonably sized house we could afford in central London.
It is also very beautiful inside. Our house was built by Huguenot
silk weavers in 1724. The picture gives you an idea of what the
whole street looks like.[70]
Our house is the third along, the one with the red brick façade,
and it has poor foundations and was not really built to last.
It and all its ancient neighbours have somehow managed to survive
for almost 300 years despite wartime bombs and developers' bulldozers,
but they are fragile and vulnerable. Our two conservation areas
in Spitalfields represent a unique collection of early Georgian
houses and contain priceless relics of the past, including number
19 Princelet Street, which is Europe's only Museum of Immigration,
and that is Grade II* listed and already very near collapse. We
are extremely concerned about damage to our flimsy house as a
result of the Crossrail tunnelling and traffic.
10078. We do not trust anything that Crossrail
says. Their local consultation process was pathetic and they seemed
initially reluctant to inform us of a change of route from the
originally projected route that would have gone harmlessly under
the Truman Brewery. We ask the Select Committee to make sure that
if the final route does run under our dozens of beautiful, frail
old houses, some of which are formally listed and some not—curiously,
ours, although it was built in 1724, is not listed; it is some
sort of fluke—then we ask you to make sure that any damage
to the structures from subsidence or any other cause is made good
and properly compensated. Crossrail admit that our own house could
suffer up to 28 millimetres of uneven subsidence which is more
than an inch.
10079. We were surprised to learn today that
Crossrail is going to carry out further assessments on all the
listed buildings, but we understood from meetings the Spitalfields
Society has had with Crossrail engineers that the phase three
reports they had done in April 2004 were the last assessments
they would do simply because no buildings in the Spitalfields
area scored more than two against their assessment criteria. In
view of the recent site inspection, when they re-assessed number
19 Princelet Street as scoring three, and Crossrail agreed to
assess Christ Church, what further assessments does the Promoter
now plan?
70 Committee Ref: A116, Photograph of the property
of Mr & Mrs Critchley (SCN-20060613-014). Back
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