PUBLIC SESSION MINUTES OF ORAL EVIDENCE taken before HIGH SPEED RAIL COMMITTEE On the HIGH SPEED RAIL (LONDON – WEST MIDLANDS) BILL Monday 3 November 2014 (Afternoon) In Committee Room 5 PRESENT: Mr Robert Syms (Chair) Mr Henry Bellingham Sir Peter Bottomley Ian Mearns _____________ IN ATTENDANCE Mr Timothy Mould QC, Lead Counsel, Department for Transport Mr James Strachan QC, Counsel, Department for Transport Witnesses: Mrs Afsaneh Eades Mr Robert Eades Mr David Outen Mrs Outen Mr Rupert Thornely-Taylor, Managing Director, Rupert Taylor Ltd, acoustics and vibration expert _____________ IN PUBLIC SESSION INDEX Subject Page Chairman’s opening 3 Robert and Afsaneh Eades Mr Strachan’s overview 3 Submissions from Mr Eades 5 Submissions from Mr Strachan 15 Mr Thornely-Taylor, examined by Mr Strachan 16 Mr Thornely-Taylor, cross-examined by Mr Eades 17 Mr David Outen Mr Mould’s overview 21 Submissions from Mr Outen 23 Submissions from Mr Mould 37 Mr Thornely-Taylor, examined by Mr Mould 43 Mr Thornely-Taylor, cross-examined by Mr Outen 45 Closing submissions from Mr Mould 48 Closing submissions from Mr Outen 51 2 (at 14.00) 1. CHAIR: Good afternoon, everybody. Welcome to the HS2 Select Committee. This afternoon we are going to hear from Mr and Mrs Eades, followed by Mr David Outen. Welcome. Robert and Afsaneh Eades 2. CHAIR: We normally start off with the Promoters just giving an overview of what they consider the issues. Are you happy with that? 3. MR EADES: Yes, I am. 4. CHAIR: Okay. Mr Strachan. 5. MR STRACHAN QC (DfT): Good afternoon, sir. Could I start with P835? As you’ll see, Mr and Mrs Eades live at the Old Hall in Mavesyn Ridware, and Mavesyn Ridware is to the south of Hill Ridware. The Committee will be familiar with Hill Ridware from some petitions last week, and Mavesyn Ridware is just to the north of the existing West Coast Main Line. So, you can see it on that plan. The Old Hall consists of a mix of listed buildings – I think the gatehouse is the oldest of the buildings. There’s an aerial photograph of the property if that would help, P838. The gatehouse is the section of the building to the left with the drive running underneath it, and the Old Hall to the right. Mr and Mrs Eades have brought some other photographs of the property, both before restoration and after restoration, which they may want to refer to. 6. MR BELLINGHAM: Can I just check a point? Is it all in one ownership, the hall and the courtyard? 7. MR EADES: Yes. 8. MR BELLINGHAM: It is. And what about the cottages to the bottom left? 9. MR EADES: Are you – which, sorry? 3 10. MR BELLINGHAM: The cottage or the farmhouse – whatever it is – at the bottom left. 11. MR EADES: Bottom left – oh, that’s separate. The boundary line goes from the left-hand corner of the picture to the brick wall, and the group of properties, as it were, down the picture are separate. 12. MR BELLINGHAM: Thank you. 13. MR STRACHAN QC (DfT): If we put up P836, I think it may assist just to see the extent of the boundary ownership. So, it’s from a slightly different angle but you can see in the centre of the red box the properties we were looking at, and then it excludes the ones that were shown on the photograph. Now, the nearest works that are required to the West Coast Main Line are a little distance away, but if I put you on to P839, again, we’ve got the Petitioner’s property shown. The nearest satellite construction compound is the Armitage Shanks satellite construction compound in Handsacre, over half a kilometre away, and to the left at the top end of the screen you can see a grey shaded area. That is the area of works where there would be the installation of gantries and signalling works that we looked at – or the Committee looked at – last week, which is accessed from Wade Lane through Hill Ridware. And I can show you that on P842, please – a plan that may be familiar to the Committee now, but you can see Wade Lane to the top part of the picture within Hill Ridware and the sorts of works that are required to be accessed through, and the duration is approximately four to five weeks. 14. The petitioners have raised concerns about the effects of road closure in the wider area, and if I just show you P840, there aren’t anticipated to be any material road closures in the wider area, and we’ve shown some of the works, certainly to the south – larger works. The A515, which is the closest large road, has a temporary diversion put in place whilst the new underbridge is constructed, so that is not intended to be closed, save perhaps for overnight closures where the works are tied in. 15. The petitioner has raised concerns about noise effects, and the Promoter has responded both in the petition response document and also by letter dealing with the 4 question of noise effects. Volume 4 of the environmental statement, which deals with off-route effects, is at P843 – the relevant extracts from it – and it may assist in the petition you’re about to hear, but just to understand what’s said in the environmental statement, in terms of actual additional traffic along the West Coast Main Line. The consequence of the HS2 scheme is a net increase of up to three trains per hour in each direction – that’s paragraph 5.2.3 – and there is some increase in speed on the outer lines, from approximately 110 mph to 125 mph – 100 mph to 125 mph, and the overall noise impact of that has been assessed as not resulting in an increase of more than 2 dB, and that’s identified in the environmental statement in the passages that we referred the Petitioner to. I understand that Mr and Mrs Eades have produced their own noise assessment. It’s not anticipated that’s likely to be materially different from the evidence that the Promoter understands to be the case, but we’ll hear about it in a moment. So, I hope that provides just a broad summary. Of course, Mr and Mrs Eades can make what other points they want to make. 16. CHAIR: Mr Eades, are you – 17. MR EADES: Yes. 18. CHAIR: Okay. Please, carry on. 19. MR EADES: Thank you, Mr Chairman. Thank you, Mr Strachan. There are really two possible points we want to make. Mr Strachan has summarised them really already, but if I could just re-emphasise it. First of all, we wish to raise points about the impact of Phase One of HS2 upon our property in respect of both disruption and, once HS2 is up and running, in respect of noise pollution. We want to suggest ways in which we say this could be significantly reduced. 20. Mr Strachan has outlined already the property where we are and its position, and you will have noted that it’s in the valley of the River Trent. It’s directly north of the West Coast Main Line, and it is between two bridges: to the east, you have to go across the River Trent, the West Coast Main Line and the Trent and Mersey Canal to get southwards; and in the sort of north-west, you will have to go up to Rugeley to a bridge over the River Trent and the canal and the West Coast Main Line close to Rugeley Trent 5 Valley station. And it’s in a sort of curve, where the West Coast Main Line has a small kink between Handsacre and Cawarden Springs. Mavesyn Ridware is in a very large conservation area, and it was made deliberately so in 1974 to preserve and protect the setting of the village of Mavesyn Ridware and its amenity value for current and future generations. And I would like, please, if we could put up first of all A198 number 4. To the left of the plan, you see, shaded in green, about a third of the Mavesyn Ridware conservation area, and you will see the main listed buildings are in the cluster in the centre. And it was deliberately drawn large, as I say, in order to protect the integrity of the village setting and the listed buildings in particular. I would like the Committee to note, if you can, that the eastern edge of the conservation area, if one draws a line down the page parallel with the margin, really crosses the West Coast Main Line where the West Coast Main Line crosses the Trent and Mersey Canal, and that at the moment is the end of the fencing – the noise mitigating features that were put up on the West Coast Main Line through Handsacre when it was four-tracked. 21. Then if we go to 198 (6), please, that shows the western two-thirds of the conservation area, and as you can see, if one again draws a line down from the western edge, down parallel with the margin of the plan, one comes to the place where the West Coast Main Line crosses the River Trent, which is known locally as the Five Arches. And one of the concerns we have is that conservation area should be protected from further noise from the West Coast Main Line, and the setting of the village preserved in the way that was envisaged when it was made a conservation area.