Examination of Witnesses (Questions 3700
- 3719)
3700. CHAIRMAN: I am not going to try
and stop you, but the point about it is that you are telling us
about the sort of things that the Committee has been discussing.
I am not expecting you to say that it has come to a conclusion
about them because it has not.
3701. MS COVE: What I am trying to do
is to say that it is not just us who are expressing concerns about
the traffic movements and the impact that the dust, noise and
pollution will have on the schoolchildren. What I am trying to
say is that it is a general concern in the area of Spitalfields
that this is a potentially damaging risk to the area.
3702. CHAIRMAN: I totally understand
that, but I think it is for the local education authority to take
a part in this, and they are.
3703. MS COVE: But there is an undertaking
given by Crossrail which actually talks about the specific hours
and that was given in the House of Commons and is recorded in
the undertakings given.
3704. The Committee also asked yesterday why
they felt that the schools were not petitioning, but, as I said
at the very beginning of my introduction, which seems an awfully
long time ago now, the Community Association is a Spitalfields-wide
association, we do have 185 members and we do have many parents
with children at these local schools and I would like you to think
that, on behalf of the community, we are raising wider issues
of concern for our local children. One of the things I did not
get the chance to tell you yesterday was that in fact there are
1,100 children under the age of 11 at these three schools and,
as one of the teachers actually said, the school day does not
start at 8 o'clock and finish at 3pm, so she is talking about
8 o'clock and not 9 o'clock, but they have after-school events
which go on until 6 o'clock and I really do think that we need
to be absolutely clear that Crossrail are taking those issues
on board. I hope that you will understand that we are raising
concerns within the community which we do not believe Crossrail
have even begun to address. You may think otherwise and I appreciate
that, but—
3705. CHAIRMAN: Has the local education
authority addressed them?
3706. MS COVE: The local education authority
is part of this community group.
3707. CHAIRMAN: You mean to say that,
despite what you are telling us, Tower Hamlets' education people
have taken no part in this at all?
3708. MS COVE: No, there is a representative
from the local education authority on the Sub-Group, but no hours
have been discussed in that Sub-Group, despite the undertaking
given in the House of Commons that it would be 9.00 to 9.30 and
from 3.30 in the afternoon onwards. As far as I can see, they
have just said that there will be stoppages. Nobody has raised
the issue of what the hours of the stoppages will be and that
is why I am just coming back to you again.
3709. BARONESS FOOKES: This question
exercised the Committee when we paid the site visit.
3710. MS COVE: Exactly.
3711. BARONESS FOOKES: But my understanding,
as a result of our visit, was that the actual negotiations would
be between Crossrail and the individual school for any particular
requirements they had, like not being the normal school hours,
outings and so forth. I specifically asked about this and my understanding
was that it would be very localised between Crossrail and the
individual school, but I do not think that at this time one could
possibly do that in the light of timetables several years away.
3712. MS COVE: I do understand that and
I am very clear that in fact they are talking about local negotiations
between the contractors, not Crossrail, but it has been specifically
given as an undertaking, the hours, and—
3713. BARONESS FOOKES: Crossrail will
require the contractors to act in a certain way and that is why
it comes back to Crossrail.
3714. MS COVE: I understand, but there
is the difficulty that nobody yet has addressed which is the issue
of the lunchtime matter and I am just wanting to put it on record
in this Committee.
3715. CHAIRMAN: Well, Ms Cove, if you
are going to have a liaison committee, it is an ongoing process.
Nothing is going to happen for several years. You will have the
schools involved, you will have the parents involved, you will
have the local education authority involved and I do not see how
we can come to a certain conclusion now. We can certainly recommend
that this should be properly studied and put in an enforceable
position, but I do not think we can come to a conclusion about
it now.
3716. MS COVE: I would ask you to actually
ask Crossrail to give an undertaking that this will be a major
issue for discussion on the Schools Sub-Group and they need to
bring that up as a concern that has been expressed here when they
meet next in May.
3717. CHAIRMAN: I do not think we are
going to talk about major issues. We are going to say that this
is something which has got to be resolved.
3718. MS COVE: I would just then want
to conclude on this particular issue that, if the schools are
going to be given the opportunity to influence matters around
the issues of the lorry movements, and I am sorry to keep coming
back to that, it seems to me that, as a sub-group of the Community
Liaison Panel, they are actually being given some additional benefits
because we have been told very clearly that the Community Liaison
Panel will monitor and will not be able to make any influence
on any of the decisions that we would like to, so we are very
concerned about that and I would just refer back again to the
undertakings that we would ask Crossrail to give to the Committee
today with regards to the issues that I have raised. If you wish,
I will read them out and I would rather like to read them out
so that I can get them onto the record and then hear the response
from Crossrail. It will not take me very long. There are two very
specific undertakings that we are asking for.
3719. Firstly, we ask that Crossrail will immediately
engage with health professionals in Tower Hamlets in general and
Spitalfields in particular to begin the process of a site-specific
health impact assessment relating to the proposed Hanbury Street
construction site. As part of that site-specific health impact
assessment, and in conjunction with the appropriate health professionals,
they should begin to formulate proper and apposite mitigating
plans that can be put in place once construction begins in order
to maximise the reduction of harm from the anticipated impact
of the proposed Hanbury Street construction site. The third part
of that is to recognise or reconsider the lorry movements are
to increase from 30-minute stoppages at 9.00 and 3.30 to 60 minutes
and to implement stoppages at lunchtime in order that children
can be collected from, and be returned to, school in safety.
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