Examination of Witnesses (Questions 4180
- 4199)
4180. MR MOULD: I believe there is one
two-star along this part of the route. What, I am afraid, I cannot
do off the top of my head, is identify which. I think it is 19
Princelet Street. My Lord, the honest answer to your question
is I am afraid I do not know whether there is that direct relationship
between two-star and notable interiors.
4181. CHAIRMAN: There is, because that
is the whole point of having two stars—or it used to be.
4182. MR MOULD: Certainly two stars reflects
a much smaller sub-group of buildings of historic and architectural
importance.
4183. CHAIRMAN: It relates particularly
to interiors.
4184. MR MOULD: I am very grateful for
that.
4185. CHAIRMAN: That will be part of
the information available publicly.
4186. LORD BROOKE OF ALVERTHORPE: Could
you say just how many buildings we are actually talking about?
We have never been given the number.
4187. MR MOULD: It is about 20 along
this part of the route, but, of course, along the route as a whole
the figure is much larger—it is about 360.
4188. LORD BROOKE OF ALVERTHORPE: We
are talking about Petitioners appealing to us and the number that
they are appealing.
4189. MR MOULD: We are, yes.
4190. LORD BROOKE OF ALVERTHORPE: That
is 20.
4191. BARONESS FOOKES: My understanding
from yesterday, or the day before, was that at some stage later
on there will be an internal assessment mainly for the purpose
of ascertaining the state of the building against any claims by
the proprietors subsequent to the building of the tunnel showing
damage.
4192. MR MOULD: My Lady, that is absolutely
right. I was going, at some stage during this afternoon's presentation,
to remind the Committee of what comes next, as it were, because
this, as your Ladyship has in mind, is very much part of an ongoing
process. If it is convenient I can reiterate that now or I can
come to that when Professor Mair has completed his evidence—whichever
is convenient to you.
4193. BARONESS FOOKES: I will leave that
to you, my Lord Chairman, as to when we deal with this, as long
as it is dealt with.
4194. CHAIRMAN: For the moment, Lord
Young also has a question on this point.
4195. LORD YOUNG OF NORWOOD GREEN: I
just want to finish what we have started. Thank you, because I
am much more confident now about the validity of the survey now
that you have explained the process. As I understand it, armed
with the professional reputation of Baxter, which is acknowledged
by both sides, their access to all the internal finishes and features
of listed buildings, their knowledge of this type of Georgian
terrace, they could assess the external, have knowledge of any
special features because of the reference, as you say, to London
Survey, Pevsner and their own records, which would enable them
to make what you say is a reliable assessment of the building
and put it in the right category. Am I right in that?
(Professor
Mair) Yes.
4196. I do not mean to paraphrase.
(Professor Mair) That is paraphrased very
well.
4197. The only other point that I was recalling
from Mr Wheeler that I want to be sure on, is that he said: "Well,
for instance, suppose they had gone into the basement of one of
these buildings and they had converted the cellar and put a concrete
raft in, underpinned or done something." Would that have
an effect on assessment?
(Professor Mair) It is a little hard to
answer that question as a generality, but my reaction would be
that if they had gone in and done some underpinning or some improvement
in some sort of way, as you describe, that would probably make
the building less vulnerable and remove a possible sensitive or
vulnerable feature.
4198. LORD YOUNG OF NORWOOD GREEN: Thank
you very much.
4199. MR MOULD: I shall come back to
this, because one thing I would like to do, if I am allowed a
few moments to do so this afternoon, is to show you one or two
detailed aspects of the Settlement Deed I mentioned yesterday
because I think it is important that you understand how that works
in a little more detail. I would like to continue with Professor
Mair, if I may. What we would like to show you, finally, is some
relevant extracts from the Alan Baxter Associates report which
formed part of the technical background material to the Crossrail
Environmental Statement. I hope we have provided you with some
extracts of that in hard copy. I think what I shall do, Professor
Mair, if it is convenient to you, is I will hand over to you to
explain the significance of this. Thank you.
(Professor Mair) Yes, I would like to have, if we could,
page 25, please, of that report? I hope that you all are able
to see this page 25.[32]
This deals with Phase 3 essentially, which is what we are talking
about, of the assessment process. What this specifically relates
to is the question of how historic buildings, listed buildings,
are dealt with and it describes in the fourth paragraph—and
I will not obviously read every word of that—how the assessment
incorporates these two extra scores, one score for the behaviour
of the building and another score for the question of finishes,
and how they may respond. It makes the point that the scores can
range from zero for a robust building with no significant features
up to four for a delicate building with very fine features because
that would give a two and a two, which together would make the
four. At the bottom of the page is a table which just recaps what
I described earlier, which is the sensitivity classification to
do with the structure as to how the whole structure might behave
and that is the scoring system, zero, one or two.[33]
Then the following page, if we could go to that, please, page
26.[34]
The top of that page has a second table which relates to the second
part of the scoring system which is the features and the finishes
on which we have already spent some time. Again, I have described
that and that also shows the zero, the one, and the two scoring.
The way in which this is all finally put together is illustrated
at the bottom of the page where you see a grid with colours and
you will see along the top the words "Building Damage Classification".[35]
Those are the categories of building damage which are related
directly to the tensile strain calculation and you will see zero,
one, two, three and four, the increasing severity of potential
damage from the building classification and that work was all
carried out by Mott McDonald. In a sense, you can imagine the
row going across is the work by Mott McDonald in calculating the
maximum tensile strain that the building might experience.
32 Scope and Methodology, Para 4.3.1.1 Phase 3, Alan
Baxter Associates (SCN-20080312-017) Back
33
Scope and Methodology, Table 4.2 Building Sensitivity Classification-Structure,
Alan Baxter Associates (SCN-20080312-018) Back
34
Scope and Methodology, Table 4.3 Building Sensitivity Classification-Features
and Finishes, Alan Baxter Associates (SCN-20080312-019) Back
35
Scope and Methodology, Table 4.4 Matrix for Assessment of Magnitude
of Impact, Alan Baxter Associates (SCN-20080312-020) Back
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