Examination of Witnesses (Questions 5320
- 5339)
5320. LORD JAMES OF BLACKHEATH: But they
would be uninterruptedly continuing on the Whitechapel Road, would
they not?
(Mr Walters)
That is correct.
5321. They are not coming off the side roads
where the congestion is going to occur?
(Mr Walters) They generally use the Transport
for London route network, that is right, to deliver to Sainsburys.
5322. LORD JAMES OF BLACKHEATH: Their
position might be worsened by the traffic coming in and this is
why you need careful control of the flow of traffic into it, because
otherwise you are going to have the fact of lorries going straight
into it from there. It will not need many trucks to start a huge
tailback.
5323. MS LIEVEN: Mr Walters, is there
any reason to believe that there would be any material number
of lorries coming down Vallance Road other than our lorries? There
are obviously going to be a lot of lorries on Whitechapel Road
going to and fro on various business, but are there any other
sites up Vallance Road that you would expect to be generating
large amounts of HGVs?
(Mr Walters)
I am afraid I am not aware of that. It is a B road and I think,
again, if there was a site local to that road it would generate
lorries, but generally lorries stick to the Transport for London
route network to get to and from the sites, which in this case
is the A11.
5324. LORD JAMES OF BLACKHEATH : Mr Walters,
is it completely impracticable to forbid any of the traffic to
turn left out of Hanbury Street but force it all to go right to
avoid this convergence?
(Mr Walters)
Can we put the other plan up?
5325. MS LIEVEN: Yes, can we put the
plan up because I am not entirely sure?[12]
5326. LORD JAMES OF BLACKHEATH : It sounds
too simple a solution so probably it does not work but I just
wondered if it could.
(Mr Walters)
To turn back out into Hanbury Street, my Lord?
5327. Yes. I am trying to keep the two flows
apart so that Hanbury Street has to look after itself and Vallance
Street looks after itself and ne'er the twain shall meet.
(Mr Walters) Certainly with the London
Borough of Tower Hamlets that is the circulation that they were
very keen for us to adopt at Hanbury Street. It will be worth
going back and talking to them about this particular point at
Durward Street.
5328. MS LIEVEN: Did Tower Hamlets want
vehicles to come out of Hanbury Street and then go back down Greatorex
Street?
(Mr Walters)
They did not.
5329. Going back to the Kempton Court plan,
number 9, in terms of the concerns about the school and whether
or not half an hour at the beginning and end of the day is sufficient,
have we had discussions with the school about this?[13]
(Mr Walters) We have had discussions with Tower
Hamlets, who I believe in turn have had discussions with all the
schools, and we have had individual meetings with a number of
schools, and probably the most meetings in this area with Swanley
School because it has been so directly affected.
5330. I think that Swanlea School appeared in
the House of Commons, is that right? Do you recall that?
(Mr Walters) I am afraid I do not.
5331. I will lead you on that then: they did.
Have they petitioned in the House of Lords?
(Mr Walters) No, they have not.
5332. And, so far as you are aware, are they
content with the period of half an hour at the beginning and end
of the day?
(Mr Walters) Yes, so far as I am aware.
5333. Are you aware as to whether or not there
is a school liaison committee—I cannot remember if it is
called that—by which schools in the area are talking to
the project and agreeing matters of concern with us?
(Mr Walters) That is right.
5334. LORD JAMES OF BLACKHEATH : My Lord
Chairman, I do not wish to take too much of the Committee's time
on this but I would like to register at this moment my concern
that not enough contingency planning has gone into this particular
point because, although I can see the common sense of what they
have in an orderly, straightforward, flat playing field, I am
concerned that all of this would be blown away by the first thing
that goes wrong which was not predicted and that there is not
enough contingency planning to cope with the unexpected.
5335. CHAIRMAN: This is the traffic side?
5336. LORD JAMES OF BLACKHEATH : Yes.
5337. MS LIEVEN: Mr Walters, can we just
consider that for a moment? Obviously, unexpected things can happen
on a project like this and the nature of an unexpected thing is
that we cannot entirely predict it, but, given the size of the
worksites here and the constraints in the area, is there any realistic
prospect of a large number of vehicles over the absolutely worst
case of the 76 being generated out of these sites? Can you get
that many more lorries in there, is, I suppose, the critical question?
(Mr Walters) The sites, as you say, are very constrained.
They already have concrete plants, they have cranes, they have
small areas for stockpiling material in case there is a hiccup
in the lorries travelling to and from the site, so realistically
we would not be able to hold a lot of lorries here and my Lords
heard about Burdett Road last week as being a lorry holding area
really for the whole of the Whitechapel area and that we would
seek to control them from there. We do not have the room on the
sites to do that.[14]
5338. CHAIRMAN: Have you got another
lorry holding area other than Burdett Street?
(Mr Walters)
Further west, my Lord, but not really for this area, more into
the City.
5339. Burdett Road is for Hanbury?
(Mr Walters) It is for this area. It is
for Stepney Green, Hanbury Road and Whitechapel.
12 Crossrail Ref: P23, Lorry Movements-Hanbury Street
worksite (SCN-20080317-002) Back
13
Crossrail Ref: P40, Whitechapel Station-Proposed Lorry Routes
(TOWHLB-8_04-009) Back
14
Crossrail Ref: P40, Proposed lorry routes from Burdett Road Lorry
Holding Area to Whitechapel worksites (TOWHLB-8_04-010) Back
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