Examination of Witnesses (Questions 2080
- 2099)
2080. MR DRABBLE: I do not know immediately.
Twenty-two, I am being told.
2081. LORD JAMES OF BLACKHEATH: Presumably
they go to the local schools?
2082. MR DRABBLE: Absolutely.
2083. LORD JAMES OF BLACKHEATH: The question
really, whichever way you come to it, is what impact will any
of this have on their access to those schools and will they be
exposed to the danger of the circulating equipment and traffic
on the site?
2084. CHAIRMAN: Could we put the Whitechapel
map up again?[5]
2085. MR DRABBLE: Indeed.
2086. LORD JAMES OF BLACKHEATH: That
question remains unanswered at the moment, Mr Drabble.
2087. MR DRABBLE: I realise that.
2088. CHAIRMAN: That does not deal with
the travellers' site.
2089. LORD JAMES OF BLACKHEATH: I am
concerned that the essence of the question—I may have asked
it wrongly—is how many children there are on the site, what
schools do they go to and is there any danger created by the circulating
traffic of the construction site relating to those children which
is a new element for the safety of the individual?
2090. CHAIRMAN: This is on the travellers'
site?
2091. LORD JAMES OF BLACKHEATH: Yes.
2092. CHAIRMAN: That is not on here.
2093. MR DRABBLE: My Lord, if I can answer
the question as directly as I can on my own information and if
we need any more, then I will turn behind and ask it. I am told
there are 22 children on the site. They go to the local schools.
The purpose of the plan, by which I mean the text which Mr Mould
discussed with you, is, amongst other things, to settle a relocation
strategy that will provide for a single move of the travellers
site. As far as I understand it, there are no outstanding concerns
about the relationship between the construction works in the part
of the site that will be freed by the movement of the travellers'
site and the relocated travellers' site that follows that signalled
move.
2094. LORD JAMES OF BLACKHEATH: The relocation
of the travellers' site does not create any problem of getting
to the schools for these children or creating any new dangers?
2095. MR DRABBLE: No, in terms of the
relationship to the school, it is a relatively minor relocation.
Provided it is handled appropriately on the site within the triangle,
which is one of the purposes of the discussion we are having with
the Promoters, then there is no need to anticipate any difficulty.
2096. LORD JAMES OF BLACKHEATH: In accepting
that answer, my Lord Chairman, could I make the point at some
point during this, and I am not sure when and where it will occur,
I was not happy with the security of the access hours available
to the schools on the three sites within the Hanbury Road area
and would like at some point to hear that debated.
2097. CHAIRMAN: I think it will have
to be debated now.
2098. LORD JAMES OF BLACKHEATH: I was
concerned then in that case that the issue which arose, as far
as I could see, was that there was a reasonable margin being allowed
as to the access hours when the trucks could not move and the
children were going in and out of the schools. I think the schools
may have more than one exit and entry each and I was unsure as
to whether the children themselves would abide by the rules and
not make their own dangers by jumping barriers or getting through
a window, that there was enough security on the children's entry
and access. I am probably being very neurotic, but it seemed to
me a very extremely dangerous potential situation.
2099. MR DRABBLE: My Lord, as you will
have seen, we have secured undertakings to ensure there are no
lorry movements along the defined routes—and I am speaking
from memory in the Commons proceedings in my own case—that
the traffic management plans work by identifying routes for the
construction traffic. There are undertakings that there will be
no lorry movements at the beginning and the end of the working
day and we are dealing with a very limited number of lorry movements,
even during the working day. We are satisfied that there are no
significant highway dangers arising from the construction works
in the light of that situation.
5 Crossrail Environmental Statement, Impacts arising
from the Amendments of Provisions (SCN-20080304-002) Back
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