Examination of Witnesses (Questions 5080
- 5099)
5080. BARONESS FOOKES: This was one of
the points that was made by the professor yesterday. He explained
in considerable detail what had been done so far, what was proposed
to be done and how it all fitted into the scheme.
5081. CHAIRMAN: You do not know about
that, do you?
5082. DR PEDRETTI: I do not know what
he said yesterday.
5083. CHAIRMAN: You can look it up in
the transcript. You might be interested. I do not think we can
take this any further.
5084. DR PEDRETTI: Mr Berryman, since
he is here, suggested on Tuesday that there were no such things
as timber-framed buildings in Spitalfields. All I can say from
my experience, having worked on one for the last 30 years, is
that what makes those buildings in Spitalfields special is that
they are precisely on a paradigm shift, as we would say in science,
between thinking of buildings as frames and thinking of buildings
as masonry structures. All the roof structures are done in the
methodology and the thinking of timber-framed buildings and the
brickwork is done starting to have confidence in brickwork, and
whenever they lose confidence—guess what?—they put
a buried timber in. So we have assertions that are being made;
it may be that Dr Mair corrected these assertions afterwards but—
5085. CHAIRMAN: I do not think any such
assertion was made but you have now explained what you mean. The
fact of the matter is that this could have been explored with
Professor Mair. The message must get through to the Spitalfields
community that if you want to get this Committee to help you in
any respect you have got to come and tell us. It is as simple
as that. We cannot make it up ourselves. Could I ask you to pass
the word around that, when the opportunity occurs, people ought
to come. It is not unreasonable, you know.
5086. DR PEDRETTI: No.
5087. CHAIRMAN: All right?
5088. DR PEDRETTI: I will try my best.
5089. CHAIRMAN: You see what you can
do. Where were we?
5090. MS JORDAN: I raised two points
about the traffic which we are still concerned about, but I will
not go over that.
5091. CHAIRMAN: If it is two points,
are there two questions?
5092. MS JORDAN: There are two questions.
One is whether there would be anything done about traffic turning
north into the area through the very narrow street, whether there
would be any traffic management proposals there. Are we absolutely
sure that lorries can turn into Vallance Road from Buxton Street
because we do not believe they can. We think it is too tight a
road junction. I have one question about Whitechapel Station to
ask Mr Berryman. I would like to ask Mr Berryman if there had
ever been a study done of the station alignment parallel with
Whitechapel.
5093. CHAIRMAN: Let us deal with these
one at a time, shall we? First of all, shall we deal with the
dimensions of the road.
5094. MS JORDAN: Yes. Sorry.
5095. CHAIRMAN: I think Mr Berryman has
explained it once already but let him do it again.
(Mr Berryman) There are two questions here which the Petitioner
has mentioned. First, the right turn from Greatorex Street, and,
secondly, the turning from Buxton Street down into Vallance Road.
As the Petitioner says, this road is very narrow. In fact it is
artificially narrowed by the positioning of some bollards along
one edge of it. The turn here will be a difficult one, it is true,
but I think we have satisfied ourselves and the local authority
that it can be made. At this point there is also an issue about
the lorries turning right around the corner. We have done a swept-path
analysis of this, using a computerised system which shows how
a lorry goes around the corner, and we are confident that the
kind of vehicles we would be using for this can get around there,
subject only to banning parking on this side of the street. That
is something we will have to do in co-operation with the local
authority. I must say to the Petitioner that if we cannot get
lorries around here and we have made a mistake, we are in big
trouble, not them.
5096. LORD YOUNG OF NORWOOD GREEN: You
are going to check it again?
(Mr Berryman)
I will dig out the analysis that has been done.
5097. Is the swept-path analysis a scale analysis?
(Mr Berryman) Yes, my Lord. It is a computerised
programme that draws a lorry in different positions and goes around
the corner. You will have seen them, no doubt, in other matters.
We will produce one to show you, my Lord.
5098. BARONESS FOOKES: Mr Berryman, I
am a simple soul. Has anyone sent a lorry of the size required
around that corner in practice?
(Mr Berryman)
I do not know. There is a slight problem in that this road is
blocked off at the moment.
5099. MS JORDAN: Mr Berryman, that is
not true. You can get a lorry down it. I say this because the
SSBA does manage a lot of property in this area and my office
is way down. We have skips coming into this area quite often and
we have to use a particular size of skip, because, when they are
coming out of the area, they cannot get around that corner—and
I know the spoil lorries are in fact a larger carriage base than
our skip lorries. I did in fact attempt to hire a lorry—and
I am still prepared to do that if I can get one that is not busy
on other sites—to show Mr Berryman that it is not possible
to get your lorries around that corner. I think this is a major
problem.
(Mr Berryman)
All I can do is reiterate that we have discussed it at length
with the local authority. We have done the analysis that we can
do of that and we remain confident that that can be accommodated.
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