Examination of Witnesses (Questions 7760
- 7779)
7760. Notwithstanding this continuing disagreement
between the Promoter and the London Borough of Camden regarding
the appropriate design noise criterion to adopt, the content of
IPD10 is now agreed and, given that, there is no need for the
Committee to resolve the issue between the parties. If, however,
the Committee feels that it has to resolve that issue, we would
ask the Committee to decide now whether it wants to take that
course because, if it does, the Promoter will wish to call further
evidence from Mr Thornely-Taylor to assist you in your deliberations,
so we would ask you please, if you would be kind enough, to decide
now whether you wish to determine the issue about 35 or 40dB,
and we say you do not need to, but, if you do, we will call evidence
before you.
7761. CHAIRMAN: You are not going to
get an answer now. We have been presented with these two papers
this morning and we have not had the smallest opportunity to consider
them. To suggest that we could decide upon it now is, I am afraid,
just not feasible.
7762. MR TAYLOR: In that case, we will
need to call the evidence.
7763. CHAIRMAN: Today?
7764. MR TAYLOR: Yes.
7765. CHAIRMAN: Mr Clarkson, apart from
that, does what you have just heard blow your statement out of
the water?
7766. MR CLARKSON: No, my Lord, the statement
contains the issue, declares the issue. We say that, although
we disagree with it, we leave the 40 as it is, we challenge it
because we say we get there in any event pragmatically. I have
to make it plain that, if Mr Taylor is going to call evidence,
I will challenge that evidence and I will seek leave to call Mr
Methold to give his evidence.
7767. CHAIRMAN: And the statement that
you have made is on behalf, generically, of all the London borough
councils that you have mentioned?
7768. MR CLARKSON: It is, my Lord, those
declared in paragraph 1.
7769. CHAIRMAN: I just want to take this
opportunity of saying, as I did not have a chance to do it before,
that the Committee is extremely grateful to those London borough
councils which have dealt with generic issues. It has saved an
enormous amount of time and, on some of these issues, a lot of
very complicated evidence. We are really grateful to Camden for
dealing with this matter.
7770. MR CLARKSON: I will pass that back,
my Lord.
7771. CHAIRMAN: And Tower Hamlets are
in agreement?
7772. MR CLARKSON: Tower Hamlets are
in agreement.
7773. CHAIRMAN: Well, we had better discuss
the proposition that you call a lot of evidence and, if that has
to happen, it has to happen, so I wonder if you would be kind
enough to leave us now for the moment.
At 10.30am Counsel and Parties are directed
to withdraw and at 10.39am are again called in
7774. CHAIRMAN: We do not think that
it is going to be necessary to call evidence on this matter. What
we propose to do is to print the two rival statements as an appendix
to our Report and we will have to see what happens, but I do not
think we are going to be advantaged by hearing evidence on this
matter again today, so thank you to the experts.
7775. MR TAYLOR: My Lord, thank you for
that indication and sorry to have bounced you into that.
7776. CHAIRMAN: Mr Clarkson, thank you
very much and thank you to the London Borough of Camden, as I
said.
7777. MS LIEVEN: My Lords, the next Petitioner
are the Trustees of St Barnabas. There have been extensive negotiations
in the corridor, and I hope your Lordships might not feel I was
being cheeky if I suggested that perhaps we could take a slightly
earlier coffee break.
The Petition of David Monro and Adam Scott—The
House of St Barnabas-in-Soho
7778. CHAIRMAN: There is not usually
any coffee!
7779. MS LIEVEN: We could go on with
St Barnabas and just stop for five minutes while everybody rearranges
themselves. I also understand that St Barnabas have been told
that they would not start before 11 because one of their trustees,
I think it is, is coming from Paris or Brussels this morning and
was told that he did not need to be here before 11, so some kind
of short break might be required.
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