Examination of Witnesses (Questions 3240
- 3259)
3240. MR WHEELER: This is the last page.
3241. CHAIRMAN: The last page, we will
finish that.
3242. MR WHEELER: It seems to the residents
who I represent that the Promoter cares a lot less about the listed
buildings and the historic environment of our city than he does
about the development potential of various sites on the city fringe.
Furthermore, the Promoter has pursued a route that is demonstrably
more circuitous, seemingly to protect these commercial interests
as no other reason is apparent and to the detriment of the speed
of operation, passenger comfort and safety, and the cost of both
construction and future maintenance and, of course, to the detriment
of the Spitalfields area. The base route has therefore been chosen
on the basis of inadequate analysis to follow a safeguarded route
for a failed and fundamentally different project on a tunnelling
strategy that has been abandoned and on criteria for a shaft site
that are no longer relevant. This is surely contrary to best practice,
contrary to the strategy adopted by all other recent large-scale
tunnel projects in the country, contrary to the best interests
of the project itself and contrary to the public interest and,
therefore, possibly illegal.
3243. MR WHEELER: Returning to the issue
of listed buildings, I will end my presentation with a request
for a simple undertaking. That is that all listed and historic
buildings undergo an accurate and comprehensive individual inspection
and assessment in accordance with the guidelines of PPG 15, including
internal issues, now and not once work has started, to determine
the settlement impact and mitigation measures, first, for the
long-term protection of the individual buildings that are affected
and, secondly, to give a clear idea of the likely impact of the
Promoter's preferred route alignment on the historic fabric of
the area and, thirdly, in support of a proper analysis of the
best route east out of Liverpool Street Station. Can you please
assure us that we will not all be ignored --- I had crossed out
the word "misled" in this presentation.
3244. CHAIRMAN: Especially as it is misspelt.
3245. MR WHEELER: That is why. Please
give your assurance that we will not all be ignored yet again
by Crossrail, and that the Promoter will now undertake the issues
of settlement and the potential damage to the historic fabric
of our area of the city seriously. I have asked for that specific
undertaking, but can I just make a point cognisant of undertakings
that all the residents of Spitalfields will be requesting at the
end of the Spitalfields' presentations so what I need to say now
is to confirm that I would ask that the same undertakings on behalf
of the Petitioners that I represent will be granted. We have dealt
with it in this way for convenience of the Committee to avoid
repetition as I previously explained.
3246. CHAIRMAN: Mr Wheeler, through you,
could I request that the text of these various assurances and
undertakings that you all would like to see are handed in pretty
soon because otherwise it is not going to be possible for the
Promoter to respond to them.
3247. MR WHEELER: Sure, I will do that.
3248. CHAIRMAN: You do not want to miss
the opportunity when the Promoters are here dealing with your
case to hear what it is they have to say about these things.
3249. MR WHEELER: Yes, I only hesitate
because I wonder how soon "soon" needs to be.
3250. CHAIRMAN: The first thing that
is going to happen when you come back from coffee is I am going
to ask Mr Mould if he wants to ask you any questions. He probably
will not but he may want to call evidence and in the course of
that he may want to deal with this thing you are asking for.
3251. MR WHEELER: During the break can
I enquire as to how soon those undertakings can be got for you?
3252. CHAIRMAN: It is entirely in your
hands. If you want them properly attended to, the sooner everybody
has them the better, but I cannot ask you under any time limit
because it must be a matter for you and we cannot put pressure
on you to produce documents you have not already got.
3253. MR WHEELER: I will do my best to
get hold of them immediately.
3254. CHAIRMAN: It would be very helpful.
Shall we adjourn for a quarter of an hour until five to 12.
After a short break
3255. CHAIRMAN: I think we had better
go on. Mr Mould, what do you want to do about this?
3256. MR MOULD: My Lord, what I would
like to do is first of all I certainly would not wish to ask Mr
Wheeler any questions.
3257. CHAIRMAN: You can if you want to
and if he is prepared to answer them. If you do not want to, so
be it.
3258. MR MOULD: What I would much rather
do is deal with the points he has raised with a view to giving
the Committee and Mr Wheeler the reassurance that is required
in relation to those points. That is what I would like to do.
The way I propose to seek to do that is first of all remind the
Committee that I am going to call Professor Mair tomorrow, and
he will deal with detailed technical points in relation to assessment
of settlement and will build, in that respect, on the presentation
that he has already given to the Committee on the third day of
the proceedings.
3259. CHAIRMAN: He can also deal with
this.
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