Examination of Witnesses (Questions 21180
- 21199)
21180. It goes up and down like all these things
fairly regularly. It may be that the canal offers a good solution
to the Poplar boat residents because it is a direct way out and
it is a scheme which has the potential to be going ahead in any
event, but that entirely depends on two things. One, whether the
timing of the canal can be made to work with the Crossrail project
because it has not even got to the planning application stage
and we are just not in a position to know whether there are likely
to be difficulties with planning permission or not but then it
is not even in phase one of the Wood Wharf scheme, as we currently
understand it. It may be that the canal gets built, but it gets
built far too late to be of any assistance to Poplar dock owners
or users or Crossrail. The other one is simply a financial one
which is that Crossrail has indicated that we are happy to discuss
making a contribution to the canal which is commensurate with
the benefit to the Crossrail project, ie roughly commensurate
to the costs of relocating the boat owners, but we are firmly
opposed to being required to build a canal as part of the project.
That would effectively be a massive windfall to the Wood Wharf
Partnership and would entail a cost to the public purse that is
completely out of proportion to the benefit of the canal to Crossrail.
£20 million is an awful lot of money in order to assist something
like 100 boat users. Sir, we are very happy to go on discussing
the matter with the Wood Wharf Partnership and British Waterways
and it may be that is a solution but there are no guarantees of
that at this stage.
21181. I should also say, sir, that quite apart
from the fact an AP would not be justified by the project, it
would also necessarily involve a considerable delay because to
bring forward an AP for the canal would be a very major operation.
The boat owners have suggested—I will just touch on this
because it is in the correspondence—constructing a shorter
canal which, if the Committee goes back to 015, would go across
on the left-hand side close to the roundabout and go roughly through
what is on the plan as Fulton House. There are all sorts of problems
with that one, it involves impacts on the Grade I listed Banana
Wall and impacts on existing buildings which are in use, some
of which are doing rather important functions and it will also
make absolutely no sense because it does not fit in with the Wood
Wharf development proposals, so the canal would have to be built
and filled in again and then another canal built for Wood Wharf
so that is not an attractive option.
21182. Where we end up, sir, is that we believe
we can achieve waterborne access for the Poplar Dock owners save
for a period of between four to eight months when we would have
to construct these cut-off, these dams and work would have to
be going on in the cofferdam. If the Committee wishes to do so,
then we can seek powers to do that through the Bill by producing
a Supplementary Environmental Statement. We will also continue
to talk to the Wood Wharf Partnership about the canal and how
that can be brought forward, so the two are not conflicting, they
can go along in parallel. I am sorry for having taken a bit of
time, but it is not, as I say, a straightforward story. I do not
know if the Committee wants now to hear from British Waterways,
the Wood Wharf dock or Ms Stephens. I am really in the Committee's
hands.
21183. Chairman: We will hear from Ms
Stephens, she has waited long enough.
The Petition of the Poplar Dock Boat Owners Association
Ms Lucie Stephens appeared on behalf of the Petitioners
21184. Ms Stephens: I have prepared some
notes so if you do not mind I will read the notes.
21185. Chairman: I wonder if at the end
you could give the notes to the stenographers, that would be very
helpful.
21186. Ms Stephens: Given the changes
we have heard this morning, there might be some edit to what I
have originally prepared. My name is Lucie Stephens and I am appearing
before the Committee to represent the Poplar Dock Boat Owners
Association. We are pleased to be here today but would like to
note our surprise and disappointment that, as a well-established
and visible dock full of boats, we had no formal communication
from Crossrail at all prior to the presentation of our Petition.
We hope it was just an unfortunate oversight but we would like
to make it clear for the record and in case there is any misunderstanding
that while our interest may be aligned to British Waterways, they
do not represent the interests of the boating community moored
in Poplar and Blackwall Basin.
21187. We are extremely grateful to the Committee
for the time they are giving us to hear our evidence today and
also for the time they spent with us on their site visit to Poplar
Dock a couple of weeks ago.
21188. In my submission today I am going to
show how the proposed Crossrail development will impact on our
community and, in particular, I hope to explain in detail how
Poplar Dock and Blackwall Basins are thriving and diverse communities
which bring social and environmental benefits to a local area.
Remaining in Poplar Dock and Blackwall Basin is only possible
within navigable reach of the River Thames and it is the overwhelming
desire of the communities to remain in Poplar Dock and Blackwall
Basin during the building of the Crossrail Isle of Dogs station,
but the current Crossrail plan will not allow for this. That is
subject to the amendments we have heard this morning. As residents,
we have submitted a number of possible alternatives that we believe
would allow us to keep navigation open for the duration of the
project and we are willing to work with Crossrail and others to
come up with other acceptable alternatives. However, we believe
these need to be properly worked through and Poplar Dock users
wish to be fully engaged in that decision-making process.
21189. Firstly, I would like to explain why
the residents of Poplar Dock felt the need to petition against
the Crossrail Bill. Poplar Dock boat users are supportive of Crossrail
and we do not want any of the issues we raise today to be misconstrued
as a lack of support for Crossrail. We recognise that Crossrail
is vital for London and the future growth of the Docklands areas.
Our Petition concerns the method by which the proposed Crossrail
Isle of Dogs Station would be constructed. We feel that, as it
currently stands, it will have an unacceptable impact on our way
of life and community.
21190. Before moving on I would like to make
some clarifications about the current status of the Poplar Dock
and Blackwall Basin communities.[4]
Within the Crossrail assessment of community impacts report, Appendix
1, the following wording was used and we heard it used again today:
"Poplar Dock has 90 berths, mostly for recreational use.
Blackwall Basin has 20 berths, for larger vessels. These are all
residential." I have also seen these phrases used in previous
submissions to the Committee suggesting perhaps that there is
a division between the boats that are used residentially primarily
and those that are used for leisure purposes and I wish to correct
this terminology and explain to the Committee why the terms "recreational"
and "residential" are unhelpful and can be misleading.
21191. For the vast majority of us, the boats
are our only home and many owners have invested heavily in their
vessels. The vast majority of boats in Poplar and Blackwall are
moored for pleasure or leisure purposes throughout the year, particularly
in the summer months and for many this is integral to our way
of life. Those owners who may not move their boats frequently
for pleasure purposes must still move their boats for maintenance
and all of us require access to dry dock or hard standing, where
a boat is propped up on the land, for health and safety purposes.
Therefore, all of the boats within both basins are mobile. Further
to that, we are a community and we feel that any relocation options
must consider all of the boat owners from our community rather
than discriminate against some boaters on the terms of greater
or lesser frequency of use.
21192. I would also like to clarify the importance
of us having a permanent mooring site. A permanent mooring offers
all the advantages of a fixed address along with the ability to
unhitch and go cruising for a few days or months but always with
the security of knowing you can return to the same place.
21193. A little bit about us as a community.
Poplar Dock and Blackwall Basin are home to over 150 people. The
marina is one of only two, the other being a sister marina at
Limehouse, central London moorings that allows people to live
aboard and that can accommodate such a wide variety of sizes,
values and styles of boats. This variety of boats brings with
it a diverse community spanning ages, backgrounds, income levels
and experiences. We are proud that single people, married couples
and same sex partners, disabled and able-bodied people, pensioners,
expectant mothers and young children from the UK and internationally
live together so cohesively. Our diversity is also apparent in
the huge variety of occupations that people from within the community
have, including many local key workers such as nurses, teachers
and care workers, self-employed people, people in the creative
industries, including journalists, actors, musicians, film-makers,
illustrators and photographers, lawyers and other professionals,
including civil servants, students, skilled tradespeople and people
involved in the voluntary and community sector. Our current location
plays a large part in the success of this community and moving
us would threaten our future. Within Poplar we form a bridge between
the high-cost housing in Canary Wharf and the social housing in
Poplar and we continue to play a role in the ongoing regeneration
of the area. The assessments of Community Impacts Report prepared
for Crossrail states that: "berths are well subscribed and
there is a waiting list of users. [There are a few alternative
moorings in Central London] Alternatives include South Dock, St
Katherine's Dock, Shadwell Basin and Limehouse Basin". I
would like to clarify that none of the mooring mentioned above
would have the capacity to provide moorings for the Poplar Dock
and Blackwall Basin communities over a period of ten years, let
alone if the whole marina was evicted in one go. All of the moorings
listed have specific qualifications for access which include regulations
about the age, size or appearance of boat, meaning that the whole
marina could not be moved together. Also, St Katherine's Dock
and South Dock, like many commercial marinas, do not allow people
to live aboard their boats so would not provide an alternative
for Poplar Dock community members. The Parliamentary Under-Secretary
of State for Communities and Local Government, Angela E Smith
MP, speaking in a debate on 27 June last year acknowledged that
the demand for existing moorings is high and there needs to be
an increase. This is particularly true for London and the south-east.
Many community members have experienced waiting times of over
three years to secure a place at Poplar of Blackwall. The Poplar
Dock community is in total consensus that it wishes to remain
in Poplar Dock, however, we are clear that this would only be
possible with a navigable route to the Thames. Within the Crossrail
document it states that: "If a waterway is temporarily closed
under paragraph 10 of Schedule 2 to the Bill, paragraph 10(3)
requires that no more of it is closed to navigation at any time
than is necessary". As I outlined earlier, the current construction
of the Isles of Dogs Station will result in the complete closure
of the only navigating channel of vessels in Poplar and Blackwall
docks for a minimum five year period, excluding the proposals
we were just offered this morning. We dearly wish to be able to
continue living as we do. There is a real fear of moving from
our existing site as the community feels at risk of discrimination
in any new site.
21194. Within Poplar Dock we are pleased to
have achieved a positive relationship with local residents, a
good level of support and understanding from the local authority
and high engagement with local public services. Some residents
do suffer from serious health complaints and movement of the community
would force them to move to new practices and establish new relationships
with health practitioners. Before any discussion about relocation
or compensation of the Poplar community is pursued, we would want
to be clear that absolutely every opportunity that would allow
us to remain in our current site within the docks with a navigable
channel has been explored.
21195. As a community we have identified four
options, some of which were mentioned within our initial Petition
that would allow us to remain as a community within Poplar Dock.
A lot of those were covered earlier and I would like to go into
detail of two of those: option A, which involves adjusting the
sighting of the cofferdams to ensure maintenance of a navigable
channel via Bellmouth Passage, and option B, which involves bringing
forward the construction of the proposed Wood Wharf Canal to ensure
a new navigable passage to South Dock is in place before commencement
of the new Isle of Dogs Crossrail Station begins.
21196. Option A, which I said involves adjusting
the sighting of the cofferdams to ensure maintenance of a navigable
channel by Bellmouth; I would like to make it clear, we just heard
this morning about the revised proposals. We are pleased to hear
of them and we would like to look in more detail at what that
involves. We understand this will entail strengthening the wall
in front of Billingsgate Fish Market in order that the cofferdam
is secure. Altering the sighting of these cofferdams will make
it possible to maintain navigation throughout the period of construction
and therefore allow the community to remain within Poplar Dock
and Blackwall Basin. It would also allow more convenient access
for barge traffic to carry materials to and from the Crossrail
site. London Borough of Tower Hamlets has previously been supportive
of our community in retaining navigable access to our current
site, so we hope they will be supportive also of this option.
We would like to make it clear that in remaining on these sites
from the earlier discussion, it was made clear we would need the
support of British Waterways also to enable us to get through
that passage, so we would hope that they would show willing in
regard to that.
21197. Option B was about bringing forward the
construction of the proposed Wood Wharf Canal to ensure that a
new navigable passage to South Dock is in place before the commencement
of Crossrail station construction. We believe Crossrail has been
in negotiations with the Wood Wharf group and they are seeking
compensation from Crossrail in order to bring forward the start
day of construction of the canal. However, at the moment we feel
as a small group without influence we are caught between major
vested interests, therefore we ask that the Committee urge the
continued engagement of Crossrail with these negotiations and
that we, as stakeholders, are kept adequately informed of these
negotiations. We would wish that the financial impact of contributing
to the cost of the construction of this canal are considered against
the extremely serious impact that the loss of navigation would
have on the communities of Poplar Dock and Blackwall Basin.
21198. I would like to make it clear, that is
obviously reliant on the timings being agreed that enable us to
maintain access throughout the period of construction. Again,
for the purposes of clarity, we would like to make it clear that
the Poplar Dock and Blackwall community would only seek a functional
route through South Dock and from there to the Thames, so we would
not be expecting the full construction of the canal with whistles
and bells, as it were, simply an access route would be sufficient.
The redesign of the cofferdams on Bellmouth Passage or a cut-through
through Wood Wharf would allow us to remain on our current site,
close to existing services and within a local community which
we have developed a good level of integration with. Before going
any further, I would like to state again, that we would wish to
remain in place and would want all of the possible options for
this to occur to be fully investigated, feasibility studies taken,
costed and published before any relocation was considered. We
feel Canary Wharf have spent 30 years building up an eco-system
in the docks which we make an active contribution to and the two
proposals outlined already would ensure that Poplar Dock and Blackwall
Basin can remain intact and part of that eco-system.
21199. I would also like to comment on the option
of relocating to Millwall Dock, as has been put before the Committee.
This would sadly involve relocation of the community but we would
hope essentially allow the community to remain together and it
is in that way that we would want to consider this as an option.
It was suggested within our original Petition and we believe it
has been explored by the Crossrail team with British Waterways
Docklands. To date it has been suggested that it would only be
possible to secure moorings for a maximum or 20 average size boats
at this site or even fewer of the larger vessels. We would urge
the Committee to ensure that Crossrail and British Waterways continue
negotiations about the site with a view to expanding the scope
of the solution to ensure that all boats from Poplar Dock and
Blackwall Basin could be accommodated at this site and that this
would be accessible to all of our community members.
4 Committee Ref: A244, Aerial views of Poplar Dock
and Blackwall Basin (TOWHLB-32505-101). Back
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