Examination of Witnesses (Questions 11240
- 11259)
11240. Also, I gather there is a start-up period
between seven and eight in the morning before the working of eight
until one on a Saturday, so that would mean more noise before
8 o'clock start time. Some people like a lie-in on a Saturday
so that is not very nice for residents. That is all I wanted to
say.
11241. Mr Liddell-Grainger: Thank you
very much indeed. Can I call Dr Susan Goodbody and Thomas Sparks.
11242. Mr Elvin: The Petitioners own
19 Wilkes Street in the area. Their property is located above
the eastbound running tunnel about 200 metres to the west of the
proposed Hanbury Street shaft. You can see the 310, which is the
petition number, next to the 195.[7]
At the point of 19 Wilkes Street the tunnels will be more than
100 feet below the surface, some 36.5 metres below ground. Thank
you, sir.
The Petition of Dr Susan Goodbody and Mr Thomas
Sparks
The Petitioner appeared in person
11243. Mr Liddell-Grainger: It is Dr
Goodbody, is it?
11244. Dr Goodbody: It is. My name is
Susan Goodbody—and I am sorry Tom Sparks cannot be here
today. As you have heard, I live at 19 Wilkes Street, right on
top of the tunnel. We have been offered a settlement of 26mls.
You have already heard arguments from many people as to why the
tunnel should not be built under historic Spitalfields and I am
not going to go into that again. As I understand it, Crossrail
is intended to benefit all Londoners and I think that all Londoners
should share in the cost. I have a very genuine fear that a very
small minority of us are going to end up paying far, far more
than our fair share of the cost, and I have come here today to
ask you to prevent this and protect us.
11245. Obviously I do not have time to go over
all the points in our Petition, so I will concentrate on just
two, and those are with respect to noise and the potential damage
to our home. Here is what keeps me awake at night. I worry, genuinely,
that ten or 12 years from now I will be sitting in my basement
listening and going mad over the sound of trains running underneath
me, and I phone Crossrail or whoever is involved at that point—it
might not be Crossrail any more—and they will be, at best,
unwilling to help me or, at worst, unable to help me because the
tunnel will be a fait accompli and there will be nothing
that they can do about it. So I am asking you, please protect
me from this possible outcome.
11246. Additionally, I also worry that if there
is damage to my home then I will have to prove to Crossrail's
satisfaction that this is as a result of the Crossrail link, and
I do not see why I should be put in this position. I am not the
one who is changing the status quo. I do not want to bear
the cost or distress of litigation and I really do not believe
that some independent person like me would have any hope of winning
such litigation against a big outfit like Crossrail, with their
access to legal teams that I have no possibility of matching.
So I am worried about that.
11247. I have a couple of very specific questions
that I was hoping to put to Crossrail; is that going to be possible?
Can I ask questions?
11248. Mr Liddell-Grainger: Yes, you
can. If you would like to address them to the Committee and I
will ask Mr Elvin.
11249. Dr Goodbody: So the threshold
for noise that Crossrail are aiming to be under is 40 decibels.
The 40 decibels is definitely audible across the majority of frequencies
that the human ear can hear. When people talk about noise they
often give an example of leaves rustling, and that is only ten
decibels—that is thousands and thousands of times less than
trains at 40 decibels. So I just want to ask Crossrail, presumably
you have a mathematical model that you have produced to predict
that the noise level will be less than 40 decibels, and if you
do is it published and do we have access to it?
11250. Mr Liddell-Grainger: Mr Elvin
will be listening closely.
11251. Mr Elvin: He is indeed.
11252. Dr Goodbody: Also, in the response
to our Petition Crossrail said that the threshold that they were
aiming for was described as 40dBLAmax,S where "S" is
a time constant of one second. To me, when I see time constants
it makes me think is that correct? I want to know basically is
this decibel level going to be across all frequencies? How much
higher is it going to be, say, at 1000, 10,000 hertz? Could it
be ten times higher, 100 times higher? I do not know. I am asking
them basically what is the gain of this device at all frequencies?
How much are these very audible frequencies and what would be
the threshold that would have to be reached if you reached the
normal time constants? I am not sure if I should—
11253. Mr Liddell-Grainger: Please continue,
Mr Elvin will be listening closely to what you say.
11254. Dr Goodbody: One other question
which was regarding the response. We have been told several times
that there is going to be a survey of our property before tunnelling
starts and I would like to know when this is actually going to
happen. Will it involve going into the house and pulling up floorboards?
What is it actually going to entail? That is what I want to say
and if you could answer these questions I would be grateful.
11255. In closing I would like to say, please
uphold the request we made in our Petition. Please grant us an
independent assessment of noise, vibration and settlement that
we requested in our Petition and please require that Crossrail
come to some agreement with us on an acceptable level of noise
rather than impose one on us. Thank you very much.
11256. Mr Liddell-Grainger: Mr Elvin,
would you like to answer the questions?
11257. Mr Elvin: Indeed, if the Committee
would find it helpful Mr Thornely-Taylor can explain the issue
with groundborne noise again.
11258. Mr Liddell-Grainger: If you want
to start off yourself, we have gone over that fairly carefully
and we have had demonstrations on the ground noise. So if necessary
we will call a witness but I think we have explored the area.
11259. Mr Elvin: Can I first say that
with regard to the assessment of the listed building, which is
the Petitioner's property, that has been subject to a stage 3
settlement assessment, and as with the general undertaking that
will be made available to the Petitioner and we will enter into
any further discussions over that settlement report with the Petitioner
to help understand it and to discuss it.
7 Crossrail Ref: P97, Location of individual Petitioners
based in the Spitalfields Area (TOWNHLB-31003-002). Back
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