Examination of Witnesses (Questions 17460
- 17479)
17460. I would like now to show you what happens
in our area when developers are allowed to do exactly as they
want. The A11 and A12 cut the community the half. Could I have
image eight, please?[18]
You have the A12 running north to south and the A11 running east
to west. The construction of the A11 flyover effectively cut the
community in half. There is a great big flyover across there.
That was finished in 1967. It is my opinion that a lack of courage
on the part of the council has had fundamental consequences. This
area has never recovered from that huge bisecting across there.
There is a big council estate here, then there are big estates
round here. All this is a very run-down area.
17461. I think traditionally the socio-economic
situation here precluded any kind of cohesive force to stop developers
doing what they wanted to do. St Mary's Church here is 1,000 years
old. I believe this has happened but if they wanted to do it in
either Richmond, Kew or H.A.M.pstead it would not have happened;
people never had a voice in this area.
17462. Can I have the next view, please?[19]
This was before they built the flyover. There was this old church
here and there was this green around it. This is the 1930s—this
is 1920.
17463. Can I have the next one, please?[20]
That was painted in about 1740, 1800, 1905 and this is a bit later.
You can see, essentially, it did not change. Now a lot of people
use the area, it was known as part of Bow; but all that has changed
completely. There is no longer any heart to Bow. What did become
the new heart of Bow was the park. People started to use it a
great deal In my opinion, the developers have ruined it over-ground
and they now want to ruin it underground. All the bisection that
takes place over-ground means it will be a shadow underneath.
I feel that open spaces are about open spaces and about respecting
the integrity and spirit of the place. I think if this was Kew
Gardens, St James', Hyde Park or Regent's Park nobody would even
consider defacing it in this way. It is because it is small and
it is in the way of the developers, and they think "It is
an open space, we can just dig it up". I think all of us
know that what is happening to planning is because of a lack of
due care and attention.
17464. I feel that we are being consulted today
and not very often listened to, and I wonder why as communities
we have such a hard job making our voices heard. I think if ordinary
people can serve on juries and have done for hundreds of years
we are perfectly able to be listened—not just consulted
but listened to—because this is going to be huge for us.
It is a defacing of the only green space in the area. I think
people take pride and ownership of public places because we use
them, and in many cases they are our back gardens. Crossrail is
effectively proposing to dig up the back garden. There are a lot
of council estates which have nowhere else to go.
17465. I am going to show you a few pictures
of people that use the park.[21]
It is very, very safe; there is never any mugging there; it is
quiet and it is very well used. The next set of photographs just
shows people who use the park. I did not choose a special day,
I swear on that. I took them over four or five days in the summer;
they were just people who use the park. That child's party is
set up in the exact area that Crossrail wants to dig up.
17466. Could you go on to the next one, please?
These are some of the kids that use the park. It is used by local
community police officers who walk from there further north, east,
south and west, and the reason it is fuzzy is because they did
not want me to show their faces. Next one, please.
17467. Mr Binley: How did you manage
to get so many policemen in the same area?
17468. Ms Bradshaw-Price: This is a young
man who was on his way to Bow Boys' School, so he is kind of striding
ahead and he did not mind me taking his `photo.
17469. Next one, please. This was a group of
people from the Bow Bridge Estate which is the other side of the
road. They spent about three or four hours there. I remember when
I went up to them and I said: "Do you mind me taking me a
photo?" they said: "Are you going to send us away?"
I said: "No" and they said: "Because there's nowhere
else for us to go. This is the only place in the area that is
safe." Children can just run around. That kid was just running
round all over the park.
17470. The next one, please. Again, kids playing.
It is very well used all day. Obviously in the winter you would
not see them picnicking quite so much but it is still very well
used, for football games.
17471. Next one, please. This is also the area
that Crossrail is proposing to dig up. You see these are young
men of 17 or 18 just lying there. It is a quiet space. I do not
know what else to say. I do not think an open space has to be
used by 5,000 people every hour of every day; people just sit
here and they take time.
17472. The next one, please. This I took just
a few days ago. You can see the low shadows; this is an autumnal
one. He is a bus driver, on the right, and he was taking time
off. This guy works for the railways. They were just sitting there.
17473. Could I have image 18, please?[22]
I am just going to mention some of the inhabitants that live around
here. In this area here there are 30 flats which are sheltered
accommodation. There is a profoundly deaf woman, there are people
with mental health issues, there are some quite elderly residents
who must be in their 80s or 90s. I do not know if they have actually
engaged in this consultation process, by the way. They are disabled
and I know the law has been changed in December, but I do not
know if they were actively engaged in this. I have not spoken
to them, I just know that they are there because I speak to them
individually on a daily basis.
17474. Along here are three nuns. They have
a little kind of convent set up there. They work in the community
very long hours. They sometimes go into the park. There are at
least four black cab drivers who live along there. I do not what
you think about black cab drivers but they are safe and they work
long hours. I live here. My neighbour hurt his leg whilst studying
to be a black cab driver a couple of years ago. He walks on crutches
and he goes into the park. He may lose his leg; they still do
not know if they will be able to save it.
17475. In this area here there are four key
workers: two nurses, a doctor and I think a physiotherapist. I
am going to mention myself. I was not going to, but recently I
have had to start chemo and I sometimes get very tired and I feel
very sick, and I just go and sit in the park. That is just as
another person who lives in this area.
17476. There is just one more inhabitant: the
wild otter that was killed the other day, which was the first
wild otter they had seen in the river. It came from the River
Lea and it is the first wild otter they have seen for many, many
years. With that I complete my presentation. Thank you very much.
17477. Mr Lyons: What Crossrail propose
is an engineering solution which presents its own justification.
I would suggest the alternatives have not genuinely been explored.
They say that they have looked at a number of different options
for some of the elements, but certainly the route that they are
proposing has been largely presented to us as a given. They have
made all sorts of sweeping assumptions based on little or no information.
They have told us a great deal in some of their documents about
the different soil types and the strata and the nature of the
land, but they have not got the first idea who uses this area,
who travels some of the routes that they are proposing to impact,
or even the population of the area.
17478. Some of the language they use is absolutely
fascinating. The main document they have got about the sewer diversion
opens by describing the area as "predominantly commercial".
Complete rubbish. The amount of development that is going on at
the moment means that in the course of about 18 months to two
years there will be 3,000 domestic properties in this area. There
will be very little commercial development in this area. So how
they can be allowed to get away with describing something as predominantly
commercial is beyond belief.
17479. There has been a lot of talk about consultation
and I am sure they have presented to you how many times they say
they have consulted with people. I have not experienced anything
that I would describe as consultation. I have had presentation
of information; I have tried to comment; I have tried to make
suggestions; I have tried to ask questions and I know a lot of
my neighbours have. The vast majority of that has completely fallen
on deaf ears and their proposals have remained unchanged. That
is not consultation.
18 Committee Ref: A193, Fairfield Conservation Area
Residents Association, Aerial view of A11 flyover (TOWHLB-29105-008). Back
19
Committee Ref: A193, Fairfield Conservation Area Residents Association,
Historic views of Bow (TOWHLB-29105-009). Back
20
Committee Ref: A193, Fairfield Conservation Area Residents Association,
Further historic views of Bow (TOWHLB-29105-010). Back
21
Committee Ref: A193, Fairfield Conservation Area Residents Association,
Views of Grove Hall Park (TOWHLB-29105-011 to -017). Back
22
Committee Ref: A193, Fairfield Conservation Area Residents Association,
Crossrail- Months 7½ to 9 (TOWHLB-29105-018). Back
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