Examination of Witnesses (Questions 17960
- 17970)
17960. Mr Elvin: Sir, the position with
the Barbican residents, as you know from what I said yesterday,
is that the crossover at the Barbican is no longer being pursued
and I gave a statement yesterday with regard to the crossover
and its removal, and I advised the Committee to delete the crossover
from the Bill. Secondly, in terms of worksites, there will be
few worksites in the vicinity other than those for temporary utility
works for the utility diversions. The only other element was the
Finsbury Circus worksite and I do not think that affects the Barbican
residents.
17961. I am not entirely sure what remains of
the Barbican residents' concerns. We have had correspondence yesterday
which I do not, I am afraid, have a copy of. Mr Morrison was asking
for reassurance about settlement issues and we wrote to him yesterday
dealing with that and, if necessary, I will ask Mr Berryman to
address any other remaining concerns.
17962. Mr Morrison: Perhaps I am slightly
behind the news. Our major concern related to the crossover and
in fact, after all the work put into this, we have been told that
the Promoter will not be asking the Committee to continue with
the revised crossover design and we are keen for some confirmation
of that and also some confirmation that the powers in the original
Bill will be struck out, as it were. If there is some statement
tomorrow, I apologise, yesterday rather, but I did not catch up
with that.
17963. What we have been told by the Promoter
is that they will not be asking you to include the additional
provisions in the Bill and they will seek to remove the powers
from the Bill. Our concern is that, subject to any other confirmation
that may be available, some other body may seek to put the requirement
for the crossover back into the Bill at a later stage, for example,
the Office of the Rail Regulator or some other body, and we are
concerned that there should be a clear decision either from the
Committee or from the Promoter that the crossover is removed and
gone for ever.
17964. Mr Elvin: We wrote to Mr Morrison
in the same tone as we wrote to all the Petitioners relating to
the Barbican in December. It says, "I am writing to let you
know that the Promoter no longer intends to construct either the
crossover as proposed originally in the Bill or the alternative
design in AB2 and will, therefore, ask the Select Committee not
to make the amendments". I cannot say what might or might
not be in some future Bill or future works which are not before
this Committee. All I can say is that we are not pursuing it in
this project in this Bill and I hope we made that clear on the
19 December.[4]
Indeed, if any doubt remains, I gave the assurance yesterday in
committee. In fact, if Mr Fry could go to the next page, Mr Mantey
emailed Mr Morrison on 15 January, ie, the day before yesterday,
reiterating the point, so I hope we have made our position perfectly
clear.[5]
17965. Chairman: At the end of the day,
it is actually up to this Committee whether or not we wish to
pursue it or not, but given that a decision has been reached in
the manner which has been described, it would seem senseless if
we went in the opposite direction, so under those circumstances,
it is not the intention of this Committee to press those amendments
forward, so does that give you confidence?
17966. Mr Morrison: Yes, that satisfies
the point. Our concern was that we had some confirmation other
than this five-line letter that we had in December saying that,
after all the work which had gone in, suddenly it does not appear
anymore.
17967. Chairman: All I can say is that
it is not the intention of this Committee to press those amendments
forward.
17968. Mr Morrison: Then that was the
only point we wished to raise.
17969. Mr Elvin: And that concludes the
business for today.
17970. Chairman: Thank you very much
indeed, ladies and gentlemen. We will resume tomorrow morning
at 10.00 am.
4 Crossrail Ref: P133, Correspondence from CLRL to
The Barbican Association, Barbican Crossover, 19 December 2006
(LONDLB-44 & AP2-7-007). Back
5
Crossrail Ref: P133, Correspondence from CLRL to The Barbican
Association, Barbican Crossover, 15 January 2007 (LONDLB-44 &
AP2-7-008). Back
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