Examination of Witnesses (Questions 5260
- 5279)
5260. MS LIEVEN: Certainly, my Lord.
I do not know the number off the top of my head but perhaps I
could write that down and ask those behind me to deal with it.
5261. LORD JAMES OF BLACKHEATH: You will
not lose track of it, will you? We are at the stage where we need
to know.
5262. MS LIEVEN: I absolutely will not
lose track of it, my Lords. Perhaps at that stage I can hand over
to Ms Singleton.
5263. MS SINGLETON: Thank you very much.
I would like to start off by talking about Durward Street and
the background to the street. It is a very, very old street—probably
one of the oldest in Whitechapel. It was originally known as Ducking
Pond Row and it went through a couple of other names, of which
Bucks Row was one. It has, sadly, not had a good reputation, because
it was the street in which the first Whitechapel Murder was committed
in 1888; however, it has had a complete makeover since then and
almost every building, except Trinity Hall, the old school house,
has been demolished. It was reborn in the early 1990s with the
Sainsbury's site at one end, Swanlea School, Kempton Court coming
along next in 1996, and the Whitechapel Leisure Centre. At the
same time as Kempton Court was developed, Trinity Hall was redeveloped
as 18 flats. At the west end of Durward Street the whole housing
association set of flats and houses was redeveloped, so it is
almost a new street, if you like, on the old street.
5264. When we moved in in 1996 it was a very
quiet street, but it was a busy pedestrian street because it was
the route from Spitalfields to Whitechapel without having to go
down to the main street and it was also the direct route to Sainsbury's
supermarket. At the time there was no hint of Crossrail whatsoever,
although I think I was aware that there was a plan for an east-west
train service. Next we heard that there would be a train emerging
somewhere near Brick Lane but it was of no concern to us particularly.
Then we heard that there would be a tunnel under Whitechapel,
with the station on the corner of Cambridge Heath Road, and that
was to be a separate station altogether, with no connection to
the Whitechapel Station. That was the beginning of when of our
concerns were raised because we would be above the tunnel. Subsequently
the plans became much greater and we learned there would be a
station at Whitechapel with the exit and entrance from Court Street
and then subsequently Fulbourne Street. I have to say that we
only discovered that we would have a worksite in Kempton Court
as a result of reading a leaflet given out at a consultation in
Whitechapel. We had no idea that work would have such an impact
on us, that even within our development we would have a worksite.
5265. It would have been very easy to sell up
and run at this stage because it looked such a ghastly amount
of work, but we love living in Kempton Court. Many of the original
residents are still there as owner/occupiers, and they certainly
do not let go of their property if they have had to move out—as
people change jobs and get married they might wish to move somewhere
else—because they all harbour the hope that one day they
will come back there. It is such a convenient place. Within Kempton
Court we have such pleasant conditions: lovely gardens and trees.
It is a haven for wildlife and we have a tremendous amount of
bird life. It is a very enjoyable place to be. It is also a very
annoying place, because, as you will have seen, Whitechapel Market
is quite a difficult place to walk along: you have to walk along
the avenues of illegal DVD sellers and so on. Nevertheless, it
is a very attractive area to live in and so convenient to move
in and to get about, and that is why we are still there, but we
wish to make sure the conditions for us are as best as possible
while Crossrail is being built so that we do not find ourselves
fairly depressed, querying why we did not cut and run.
5266. We have had several instances recently
of disruptive experience—and one is going on right at the
moment which I will come back to—and this shows the impact
of construction work. It is the enormity in one street of having
two major worksites. There will be the hole that will be dug in
the Sainsbury's car park, 45 feet across and 90 feet deep, with
all the piling, ventilation shaft, craning and so on that will
go on. That will be where the station will be dug from—in
this case it is not being tunnelled, it is being dug by machine
and hand, if you like. At the other end, just on the other side
of Trinity Hall, will be another enormous worksite, again down
90 feet. All around that site will have to be piled. The ventilation
shaft and escape safety shaft will also be piled—it will
not be as large as the other two holes but, again, a pretty big
hole and that will have to be piled as well. That leaves the fourth
site, which is in our car park, where, again, it is piling and
work on the wall of the East London Line. I have been led to understand
that it could be over several periods, but up to a year overall.
It will cause a tremendous amount of disruption. We will be on
a worksite for nine years. I know that sounds a long time, but
works have already started in the street—and I will come
back to that.
5267. Last Thursday I met with many of the planners
and the engineers and staff from Crossrail and the designers as
well. This was a very useful meeting. Many of my concerns were
addressed satisfactorily—and I will outline these briefly
so that we have the assurances we need—but, regrettably,
I did not know that the station had been redesigned. It does look
like a more satisfactory design and it may even take less time.
5268. We have concerns about the structure under
Kempton Court because it is built on piles. Although there are
mentions throughout the document that Crossrail would be following
the most recent techniques, as developed by the CTRL, the Jubilee
Line and so on, I could not see anything said about noise levels
when the train stops and starts in a station which is below piles.
I did ask for information about this. They assured me that in
fact there should be less noise than a train that goes straight
through. This is important because there are at least ten ground-floor
flats that might be very well affected by this noise and there
is also the rape crisis centre which is housed in part of the
commercial ground floor in Brady Street.
5269. We are also concerned about the noise
from the completed ventilation shaft, particularly as we recently
suffered a high level of noise from works done at the Sainsbury's
supermarket, which ran their ventilation all night and made it
impossible to sleep or sit in one's sitting room if it was facing
in that direction.
5270. CHAIRMAN: Is that caused by their
refrigeration arrangements?
5271. MS SINGLETON: No. They were doing
internal works. I believe at certain times they would have to
turn off the electrical systems and therefore they must have ventilation
at its highest level—so it was the whole ventilation system
working at its highest level. It did sound a bit like a train
coming through with a whining noise. It was absolutely horrendous.
Despite the fact that we protested, it continued for a week.
5272. CHAIRMAN: That has happened already,
has it?
5273. MS SINGLETON: That has happened
already.
5274. CHAIRMAN: Is it going on now?
5275. MS SINGLETON: It has stopped. It
occasionally happens for a short period during the night now but,
on the whole, the supermarket is up and running so it is not the
problem that it was. I am assured that Crossrail have a different
ventilation system, that it will not be operating all the time
and that the only noise that we are likely to hear most of the
time is the noise of the circulation wind on the fans as a natural
point, but I would like assurance on this.
5276. The circulation and route and the number
of lorries was discussed in the House of Commons; however, there
are some points I would ask Crossrail to consider. One of the
things is that since Sainsbury's has been enlarged—and it
reopened in October last year—the whole way that pedestrians
walk along Durward Street has changed. First of all, the original
pedestrian entrance was on the north side of Durward Street, so
they came out of Sainsbury's, crossed on the north side and then
walked along, right beside Swanlea School. The new entrance/exit
is to the south of Durward Street, so now people walk across Brady
Street and into Durward Street on the south side, where Kempton
Court is. That means that all lorry movements will be crossing
over the pedestrian area, where they cross from Sainsbury's to
Durward Street. There are far more pedestrians now than there
used to be. With an enlarged supermarket there are increasing
amounts of patrons and, also, the very fact that they are walking
outside Kempton Court, which in places is only four feet from
the street, means that there will undoubtedly be conflicts with
the lorries. If there are 60 lorries going up Brady Street and
turning into Durward Street, taking an hour out of the ten-hour
day for the school period when lorries are not able to go, that
means over the nine-hour period there will be a lorry, say, every
eight minutes or so crossing into Durward Street. It really needs
some consideration. I do not see how it can change now because
they have put the cash ATM machines up where the exit was.
5277. The other thing that goes with that is
the narrowness of the street. At the moment we are having a tremendous
amount of problems because the East London Line has taken over
the site in Essex Wharf that will eventually be used as the ventilation
shaft on that site. I have not been able to find out whether they
are following the Construction Code practices or not but we are
having tremendous difficulties in the street with lorries. For
instance, lorries arrived this morning from quarter-past six and
they backed up in a taxi arrangement. The sixth lorry, which could
not get into Durward Street or only a short distance, reversed
back. Because Brady Street is so restricted now, there had to
be a whole series of reversing before the lorry could go out and
park in Brady Street. When the lorries are either coming in or
out, neither way can they at the moment get into the street without
reversing. This is because there was some work done in conjunction
with the Sainsbury's entrance. I do ask that the whole entrance
to Durward Street and the work in Brady Street is looked at very
carefully to ensure that there are better arrangements at getting
into Durward Street. When I look out my window I see pedestrians
walking directly behind lorries with their bleepers going and
it is as if they are impervious to the fact that lorries are coming
there, and cyclists belting around the front. It is very dangerous.
Unless it is managed very well over the period of Crossrail construction,
one has to assume there could be serious injury. When they are
coming into the street now they have to drive up on the four feet
of pavement in Durward Street. There needs to be a good amount
of work done there.
5278. One of the points I would like to make—and
I know Jil Cove said this—is that in the whole process of
looking at the Construction Code and all the works there are people
at the end of it: there are pedestrians, there are school children,
there are residents. Sometimes I feel we have been lost in the
process.
5279. I did have concerns about the accessibility
from Whitechapel Station, particularly to the East London Line.
Under the previous station plan I was informed that, although
there would be relatively easy access to the northbound line,
it would be very difficult to get on to the southbound line of
the East London Line. The southbound line is the local line really
on the East London Line. It is used constantly by people who have
come to the market, bought six mangoes and whatever else and are
carrying heavy bundles down on to the line. They would have had
the long walk to the main entrance and then almost the same walk
back to get to the East London Line. The question was asked as
to how far it is to the main station entrance. It is 360 steps,
my steps, from what is the entrance now to the Whitechapel Station
and the new station in Fulbourne Street.
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