Examination of Witnesses (Questions 3640
- 3659)
3640. MR ELVIN: Can I assist? There is
a separate schools panel. It has met on a number of occasions.
The schools have not petitioned accordingly, although they have
petitioned the House of Commons, that is being dealt with in a
manner which is satisfactory to the schools.
3641. LORD YOUNG OF NORWOOD GREEN: Thank
you.
3642. MS COVE: I am sorry, that is not
my reading of the evidence that was given during the presentation
of Tower Hamlets, it sounded as if it was Tower Hamlets that were
negotiating because they are the highways maintenance people and
they have got the responsibility for closing off roads. I do not
know who is negotiating with who on this.
3643. LORD YOUNG OF NORWOOD GREEN: The
schools are not petitioning.
3644. MS COVE: No, they are not petitioning
but they are in discussions with Crossrail about various issues,
but at the end of the day, the local authority are the people
who can close off the roads or not.
3645. CHAIRMAN: Ms Cove, Tower Hamlets
Council is the local educational authority and it is the local
highway authority, it has not asked us to do anything.
3646. MS COVE: Because I would suggest—
3647. CHAIRMAN: No, it is no use you
suggesting it, it is fact, it has not asked us to do anything.
What is it you want us to do?
3648. MS COVE: I will end up by asking
you about specific things that we would like the Committee to
do.
3649. CHAIRMAN: That is what we would
like to know, but you were telling us about the panel and it does
not work as far as I can make out.
3650. MS COVE: Yes. I am not going to
go into details about the previous consultation because we have
never felt as if we have been consulted despite Crossrail listing
us. We have been informed down the line, we have never actually
been consulted, but we welcomed the instruction from the House
of Commons Committee to set up the Community Liaison Panel and
we saw that as a positive way forward and we wanted to take an
active part in that so that the community could fully engage with
Crossrail and discuss with them all the specific areas that would
have an impact. The first meeting which was held in October 2006
was very unsatisfactory and it was a very unsatisfactory meeting
because there were 18 people present, six of whom were from the
local community, the rest were from the local authority, the police,
the fire brigade, everybody else from Crossrail and when we asked
who else had been invited from the community we were given a list
of people, most of whom we did not know and we were local residents
and we thought that we knew quite a lot of the local communities
and people in the area.
3651. CHAIRMAN: Who gave you the list?
3652. MS COVE: It was read out at the
meeting.
3653. CHAIRMAN: By whom?
3654. MS COVE: I think it was Mr Leeks
who was chairing the meeting at the time, and they had been to
a specific organisation to ask for community activists and involvement
in the Spitalfields area.
3655. CHAIRMAN: This is not PAL.
3656. MS COVE: No, no, this was before
Planning Aid, so we went back to the Committee in the House of
Commons to ask for further guidance on this, as a result of which
Planning Aid were employed by Crossrail to help us establish the
panel. They had a public meeting in June last year and we had
our first meeting as a result of the public meeting in October
last year. We agreed at that meeting to write to Crossrail to
ask them for some specific assurances regarding the running of
the organisation, whether we would get some financial support
to run the administration, for offices, that sort of thing, whether
we would get some training on negotiations and understanding of
the technicalities and we had a letter back. We also said that
we wanted to build on, as Crossrail had told the Committee in
the House of Commons, the issues with regards to the King's Cross
experience and they sort of said they wanted to build on that
with the Community Liaison Panel, so we were really enthusiastic
about it. Unfortunately, it does not appear to have taken off.
3657. Basically, in Crossrail's response to
the Community Association's Petition, in the community relations
appendix that I got sent, it talks about nominated undertakers
who will have a detailed plan for community relations before and
during construction. It only talks about nominated undertakers,
who I assume are going to be the construction people, it never
talks about Crossrail having any responsibility in amongst all
of this. We did not receive a reply from Crossrail to the first
letter which went in in October until the end of January, so we
had a second meeting in February at which two representatives
from Crossrail came along to the meeting and we questioned them
very closely on the contents and I have handed in the original
letter from the preliminary Liaison Panel and their reply.
3658. CHAIRMAN: This is the letter to
Gareth Epps, is it not?
3659. MS COVE: That is right and his
response which is attached to it. We left the meeting after two
hours with a sense that everything we asked for, apart from one
specific thing, which was that Crossrail could offer us some administrative
support, was no, no and no again and that they did not want to
enter into any negotiations with us as they kept placing the responsibility
on to the local authority for significant and detailed matters.
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