Memorandum submitted by London Underground
1. London Underground (LU) owns or has responsibility
for 250 stations, and serves in total 268, of which 57 are listed
buildings. We carried, in 2007, over 1 billion passengers, arguably
making our listed stations some of the most "visited"
listed buildings in the country. In addition to this LU is currently
undertaking the largest ever investment programme in its history
that is both refurbishing and renewing existing facilities as
well as delivering new services, such as step-free access to stations
and trains.
2. Such service demands and investment requirements
place, potentially, great strain on the management of historic
structures. LU has strong and developed policies and processes
regarding issues involving both heritage and design. We are proud
of our heritage as for us it is a tangible and positive asset,
both of our past as well as being of demonstrable value to our
brand and future.
3. We already have the benefit of close
liaison with both local authority officers and English Heritage,
through regular scheduled meetings as well as site specific contact,
and this, we feel, materially assists all parties in the management
of listed and heritage sensitive structures. In 2005 LU was party
to the pilot Heritage Partnership Agreements (HPA) scheme—looking
at selected listed stations on the Piccadilly line in central
and north London. The draft HPAs gave us much food for thought
both in terms of what benefits it could deliver as well as how
we would wish to further develop such an approach.
4. LU is aware that certain costs would
accrue as owners in delivering HPAs, but we consider that in terms
of ongoing management and resource there is the possibility of
both financial and management benefits to offset against this.
5. Overall, LU can see positive advantages
in being able to further develop partnership agreements such as
HPAs. They offer the possibility of agreeing in advance the extent,
scope and methodology of common and recurring requests for works
on stations—such as cleaning, basic maintenance and signs
schemes. These currently frequently require an individual approach,
and even application for consent, to one of over 35 individual
local authorities. In addition they offer the potential to bring
together work that in the future LU may wish to consider delivering.
For example, the possibility of introducing Station Development
Framework documents (management plans for individual stations)
could be linked to HPAs making for better and more assured management
of listed stations.
6. It is also the case that HPAs offer the
possibility of being able to look at a common agreement or management
strategy for groups of stations. This is an issue for LU where
we have a number of architecturally similar stations that straddle
many different local authority boundaries. HPAs could offer the
opportunity to be able to agree common strategy for works to these
stations or groups of buildings so ensuring a consistency in approach
to the management and evolution of these stations.
June 2008
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