Examination of Witnesses (Questions 2160
- 2179)
2160. BARONESS FOOKES: Perhaps they can
say.
2161. CHAIRMAN: I think Lord Brookes
has something to say on this.
2162. LORD BROOKE OF ALVETHORPE: If in
fact you are closing the entrance from Whitechapel Road, which
is immediately opposite the hospital—
2163. MR MOULD: We are not. Perhaps I
should just make that clear now. Lest there be any misunderstanding
we have given an undertaking to keep the existing entrance open,
so there will in fact be two entrances. The point about the existing
entrance is that we are not willing to upgrade it because we do
not consider that that is justified. Again, that is a point that
was raised in the other place, but our position on that is the
subject of a clear undertaking which has been given to the London
Borough.
2164. LORD BROOKE OF ALVETHORPE: It remains
open, steps and all?
2165. MR MOULD: Exactly so.
2166. BARONESS FOOKES: Because it is
not being upgraded—and I understand the reasons for that—it
does mean that patients are going to the hospital who may have
problems of mobility will still have them at that most direct
route, which leads me to say that I think the other section, which
includes the McDonald's we have been speaking about, should be
very, very clearly marked, and it will be much easier if that
building were subsumed within the main station entrance.
2167. MR MOULD: We certainly intend that
there should be good signage to enable access, to improve accessibility
between Whitechapel Road and the Royal London Hospital to the
new station.
2168. I should of course point out, as your
Ladyship will have well in mind, that the new station is to be
fully accessible.
2169. BARONESS FOOKES: Indeed.
2170. MR MOULD: Which of course—as
those who attended the site visit saw, and your Ladyship was there—will
be a very marked improvement over the situation at the present
time.
2171. BARONESS FOOKES: It is just a pity
that one is going to spoil the ship for a ha'p'orth of tar.
2172. MR MOULD: I heard what your Ladyship
said; I have just been handed a note, if you would allow me a
moment.
2173. BARONESS FOOKES: It was just a
somewhat sarcastic observation!
2174. MR MOULD: I understood it as such!
We do have a visual representation of the proposed new Crossrail
station at Tower Hamlets. Unfortunately we do not have a copy
of that here now but we have gone post haste to get a copy of
it and we will show that to the Committee, if we may, perhaps
after the short break.
2175. LORD YOUNG OF NORWOOD GREEN: I
want to get some sort of perspective. In terms of the distance
from the Whitechapel Road, the new step-free Crossrail entrance
and step-free station, how far is it from the Whitechapel Road?
2176. MR MOULD: I am told that from the
north side of Whitechapel Road to the new station entrance is
about 40 metres.
2177. LORD YOUNG OF NORWOOD GREEN: Having
been there and looked at the heritage Whitechapel Station, which,
like many London underground stations, if you wanted to provide
wheelchair access you would not have designed it that way—
2178. MR MOULD: No.
2179. LORD YOUNG OF NORWOOD GREEN: ...
it is a moot point whether people with wheelchairs would want
to go through that station to gain access to Crossrail rather
than take a journey 40 metres away. Whilst in an ideal situation
there might be all sorts of things one could have done, my concern
is trying to get a balance with Crossrail, what you could reasonably
expect the undertaking to do in terms of within the agreed limits
of deviation. So my concern is how far is it from that Whitechapel
Road, which obviously will generate a large amount of foot traffic
to and from that hospital, that we have the signage right and
that when they do get there it is a very accessible, step-free
environment.
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