1511
IN PARLIAMENT HOUSE OF COMMONS SESSION 2013-2014
HIGH SPEED RAIL (LONDON TO WEST MIDLANDS) BILL
Against the Bill - on Merits - Praying to be heard by Counsel, &c
TO THE HONOURABLE THE COMMONS OF THE UNITED KINGDOM OF GREAT BRFFAIN AND NORTHERN IRELAND IN PARLIAMENT ASSEMBLED
THE HUMBLE PETinON of UNIVERSITY COLLEGE LONDON
SHEWETH as follows:—
1. A Bill (hereinafter referred to as "the Bill") has been introduced into and is now pending in your Honourable House intituled "A Bill to make provision for a railway between Euston in London and a junction with West Coast Main Line at Handsacre in Staffordshire, with a spur from Old Oak Common in the London Borough of Hammersmith and FUlham to a junction with the Channel Tunnel Rail Link at York Way in the London Borough of Islington and a spur from Water Orton in Warwickshire to Curzon Street in Birmingham; and for connected purposes.".
2. The Bill is presented by Mr Secretary McLoughlin, the Secretary of State for Transport (hereinafter called "the Promoter").
Relevant clauses of the Bill
3. Clause 1 of the Bill will authorise the nominated undertaker to construct and maintain the works specified in Schedule 1 to the Bill fthe scheduled works") being works for the construction of Phase One of High Speed 2 CHS2") and works consequent on. Or incidental to, such works. The lines, situations and levels of the scheduled works and the limits of deviation within which the works may be carried out are shown on the deposited plans and sections referred to in and deposited with the Bill. Ah Environmental Statement ("the ES") has been prepared in support of Phase One of HS2 and accompanied the Bill.
4. The Scheduled Works include Works Nos: 1/1, 1/2, 1/3, 1/4, 1/4A, 1/4B, *1/4C, 1/5, 1/6 1/9B, 1/9C, 1/10, 1/11, 1/llA, 1/12 and l/lB. Those works are described as follows:
Work No. 1/1 is a proposed railway (partly In tunnel) that will run through various local authority areas including the London Borough of Camden. Work No.1/2 is a proposed railway (partly in tunnel), being a realignment of the West Coast Main Railway Line in the London Borough of Camden. Works Nos 1/1 and 1/2 include the reconfiguration and enlargement of Euston Mainline Station and London Underground Euston Station Ticket Hall.
Work No. 1/3 is a passenger subway, linking the proposed London Underground Euston Station Ticket Hall to the London Underground Metropolitan Une Platforms at Euston Square Station, incorporating a new passenger access in Gordon Street. Work No. 1/4 and 1/4A are passenger subways linking the London Underground Metropolitan Line platforms of Euston Square Station with Work No 1/3 beneath Gordon Street, Euston Road and Gower Street.
Work Nos. 1/4B and 1/4C are passenger subways linking the proposed London Underground Euston Station Ticket Hall with the London Underground Northern Line and Victoria Line platforms at Euston Station.
Work No. 1/5 is an access road between Euston Road (north east of its junction with Gordon Street) and the Junction between Eversholt Street and Grafton Place.
Work No. 1/6 Is a sewer forming a diversion of sewers in Cardington Street, Melton Street, Euston Street and Stephenson Way, between a Junction with Work Nol/9B and a point 25m north of the junction between Euston Road and Gordon Street.
Work No. 1/9B is a diversion of the Fleet Sewer beneath Euston Road between points in the vicinity of the Euston Road/ Gower Street and Euston Road/ Upper Woburn Place junctions.
Work No. 1/9C is a diversion of a sewer beneath points north of the Euston Road/Gordon Street junction and north west of the Euston Road/Upper Woburn Place junction.
Work No. 1/10 is a cycletrack and footpath commencing at a point east of the junction of Varndell Street with Hampstead Road and terminating at the junction of Evershold Street and Barnby Street, including a bridge over Works Nos. 1/1 and 1/2 and the West Coast Main Line Railway.
Work No. 1/11 is a realignment of Hampstead Road commencing at a point 65 metres south of its junction with Robert Street and terminating at a point 53 metres south of its junction with Harrington Square, including a bridge over Works Nos. 1/1 and 1/2 arid the West Coast Main Line Railway.
Work No. 1/1 lA is a temporary cycle track commencing at a junction with Work No. 1/11 south east of the junction of Mackworth Street with Harrington Street and terminating by a junction with Work No.1/14 at a point south west of the Junction of Harrington Square and Lidlington Place, including a bridge over Works Nos. 1/1 and 1/2 and the West Coast Main Line Railway,
Work No. 1/12 is a diversion of a sewer in Hampstead Road between a point north westof the junction between Hampstead Road and Robert Street and a point north of the junction of Hampstead Road with Varndell Street.
Work No. 1/18 is a water main beneath Euston Road between a point east of the Gordon Street/ Euston Road junction and a point north west of the junction of Albany Street and Redhill Street.
5. Clause 2(1) of the bill includes general powers for the purposes of or in connection with the scheduled works. Including power within the limits of deviation and land to be acquired or used:
• to construct (inter alia) bridges subways roundabouts lifts stairs escalators means of access shafts buildings apparatus plant and machinery
• to construct (inter alia) retaining walls and other works
• to demolish buildings and structures • to alter or alter the position of other apparatus including mains sewers drains and cables
• to carry out and maintain such other works as may be necessary or expedient
Clause 2(4) Of the Bill introduces Schedule 2 to the Bill, which in turn authorises the nominated undertaker:
• to survey or investigate land which is within the Act limits or affected by the Phase One works
• to make trial holes, carry out ecological or archaeological investigations/ and to take samples
• tb enter on land in order to carry out the investigation, and to place or leave apparatus. Under paragraph 1(6), 7 days' notice must be given to the owners and occupiers of the land before doing so. Part 2 of the Schedule contains other provisions about entry, including about compensation
• to support or strengthen buildings within a relevant distance of the works that may be affected by construction on giving 8 weeks' notice to the occupier.
• to enter adjacent land to carry out the supporting works if they cannot reasonably conveniently be carried out without doing so. The nominated undertaker must give the owners of the adjacent land 14 days' notice.
• to enter and survey buildings and land to decide whether or how to carry out supporting work.
• in order to strengthen or support a building, to leave equipment or material in, next to or under it, or on or under land in its vicinity.
• to carry out further supporting or strengthening works for a building previously supported on giving 8 weeks' notice within 5 years from when the Phase One work necessitating the previous supporting work was brought into general use.
• to install and operate monitoring apparatus on any building to measure movement and the effectiveness of supporting work.
• from time to time to maintain, repair or alter the position of monitoring apparatus and take readings from it.
• to do likewise to the apparatus of a utility undertaker or relevant pipe-lines belonging to another body.
Powers of entry under Part 1 of Schedule 2 are exercisable at any reasonable time and before entering the land the person exercising the right of entry must, if so required, produce evidence of authority to enter the land and state the purpose of entry. The person may take vehicles and equipment (including plant and machinery) on to the land and such other persons as may be necessary. This right is subject to the necessity to secure a warrant to enter if refused entry in case of residential land or non-residential buildings. 8. Clause 3 of the Bill introduces Schedule 4 to the Bill which contains provisions relating to highways including power to stop up and interfere with highways. The provisions in Schedule 4 include the following:
• that the power to carry out ancillary works under clause 2(1), (3) and (5) of the Bill may be exercised in a way that permanently obstructs the highway. Paragraph 5(1) requires the consent of the highway authority for this, which consent is not to be unreasonably withheld. If this is disputed, paragraph 5(2) provides that the matter must be determined by arbitration or by the Secretary of State.
• that the nominated undertaker may temporarily interfere with any highway for the purpose of carrying out the Phase One works. Under paragraph 6(1), it may stop up, alter or divert the highway, divert traffic from it or prevent persons passing along it, break up or interfere with it or temporarily remove street furniture. Under paragraph 6(2), the nominated undertaker must provide reasonable access for pedestrians to or from premises abutting the highway.
• that where the highway is specified in table 3 in Part 4 of the Schedule, under paragraph 6(3) and (4) the relevant authority must simply be consulted with respect to public safety and convenience before the power is exercised. The entire lengths of Stephenson Way, Endsleigh Gardens and Gower Place, and areas of Upper Woburn Place, Gordon Street, Gower Street, Euston Road, Euston Square, North Gower Street, Tottenham Court Road and Hampstead Road which are within Limits of Deviation or Land to be Acquired or Used are specified in Table 3 of Part 4.
• that in relation to a highway, and to an extent not specified in Table 3 paragraph 6(5) requires the consent of the relevant authority to be obtained in writing by the nominated undertaker prior to the power being exercised. Paragraph 6(6) and (9) provide that the relevant authority may not unreasonably withhold such consent, but may apply reasonable conditions in the interests of public safety or convenience, and that any disputes about this must be determined by arbitration or by the Secretary of State.
• paragraph 7 which would allow the nominated undertaker to place, maintain, reposition and remove apparatus in the highway, and also carry out works for the purpose.
• paragraph 9 which would provide that a highway temporarily stopped up under paragraph 6 may be used as a work site for HS2 where it is within limits of deviation or of land to be acquired or used. This would include the areas of Stephenson Way, Endsleigh Gardens, Gower Place, Upper Woburn Place, Gordon Street, Gower Street, Euston Road, Tottenham Court Road, North Gower Street and Euston Square referred to above.
9. Under Clause 4 of the Bill, the Secretary of State will have power to acquire compulsorily so much of the land within "the Act limits" as may be required for the purposes of or in connection with Phase One of HS2 or any high speed rail transport system of which it forms or is to form a part. By clause 63(2), land is within the Act limits if it is within the limits of deviation for the scheduled works or within the limits of land to be acquired or used, as shown on the deposited plans. Those lands Include plots 29, 52, 53, 74, 75 and 76 in the London Borough of Camden as shown on the deposited plans (Sheet No. 1-01). They also include Plots 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25 and 56. These plots are within the Act limits and are therefore subject to the power of compulsory acquisition under the Bill subject to any limitations contained in the Bill.
10. Clause 5 of the Bill provides that the power to compulsorily acquire land under section 4(1) includes power to acquire such easements or other rights over land to which the power relates as may be required for Phase One purposes by creating new easements or other rights, or acquiring easements or other rights already in existence.
11. Clause 6 of the Bill provides that the provisions of Schedule 10 (Acquisition of part of land only) to the Bill apply instead of section 8(1) of the Compulsory Purchase Act 1965.
12. Clause 7 of the Bill provides that the power to compulsorily acquire land under section 4(1) may be exercised in relation to the airspace over the land only.
13. Clause 8 of the Bill provides that the powers of section 4(1) in relation to land may be exercised in relation to the subsoil or under-surface of the land only.
14. Clause 9 of the Bill provides that the nominated undertaker may enter upon, take and use for the purposes of the works authorised by the Act so much of the subsoil of any highway within the Act limits as is required for the purposes of the construction or maintenance of those works without being required to acquire that subsoil or any interest in it.
15. Clause 10 of the Bill provides that the power to acquire land under the Act will expire 5 years from the date the Act is passed and that the Secretary of State may by order extend that period in relation to any land, but may only do so once, and by not more than 5 years.
16. Clause 11 of the Bill introduces Schedule 14 to the Bill which contains provision about the extinction of private and other rights over land. Schedule 14 makes provision for the extinction of private and general rights over land within the Act limits either held by the Secretary of State, or in which the Secretary of State has acquired rights or imposed restrictive covenants, for Phase One purposes.
Paragraphs 2 to 4 of Schedule 14 deal with the extinction of private rights as defined by paragraph 2(3). These include private rights of way, rights of common and restrictions as to the user of land.
Paragraph 2 of Schedule 14 provides the general position that private rights over land within the Act limits which is held by the Secretary of State for Phase One purposes are extinguished. Where only rights are acquired, or restrictive covenants imposed, for Phase One purposes in relation to land within the Act limits, private rights are only extinguished if and to the extent that they are inconsistent with the exercise of the acquired right or the restrictive covenant.
However, paragraph 3(3) sets out certain rights to which paragraph 2 does not apply and are not therefore extinguished. These include rights of statutory undertakers ih relation to their apparatus
Further, paragraph 3(1) and (2) enable the Secretary of State to direct that any particular private right is not to be extinguished under paragraph 2, either wholly or in part.
17. Clause 12 of the Bill applies sections 271 to 273 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 (extinguishment of rights of statutory undertakers etc.) to land held by the Secretary of State as being land which is required for or in connection with the works authorised by the Act as they apply in relation to land acquired or appropriated as mentioned in section 271(1) of the 1990 Act.
18. Clause 14 of the Bill introduces Schedule 15 to the Bill which contains provisions about temporary possession and use of land in connection with the works authorised by the Act. Schedule 15 allows the nominated undertaker temporarily to take possession, and make use, of land for Phase One purposes.
Provision is made for two cases, land which is identified in the table In Part 4 of the Schedule ("the table land") and other land within the Act limits. None of the plots comprising or abutting land belonging to your Petitioner is "table land". It is therefore dealt with as follows.
Paragraphs 1(1) and 2(1) of Schedule 15 deal with land within the Act limits other than the table land. Paragraph 1(2) provides that the nominated undertaker may take temporary possession of such land. However, this is subject to the exceptions in paragraph 2(1). Temporary possession of land cannot be taken if the power of compulsory acquisition under clause 4(1) is restricted to the acquisition of rights in the land or the acquisition of subsoil or under-surface or both the acquisition of subsoil or under-surface and of rights of passage.
By virtue of Clause 9(3)(a), since the plots comprising or abutting land belonging to your Petitioner (with the exception of Plot 21 (Gordon Street Work Site) are listed within the table in Schedule 12, where the surface of the land is highway, the subsoil of the land may not be compulsorily acquired under Clause 4(1). Therefore Clause 14 and Schedule 15 would authorise temporary possession of plots other than Plot 21 and Clause 4(1) would authorise permanent acquisition of Plot 21.
In addition temporary possession cannot be taken of land in respect of which the power of compulsory acquisition under clause 4(1) has been exercised either by the service of a notice of entry under the Compulsory Purchase Act 1965 or by the making of a vesting declaration under the Compulsory Purchase (Vesting Declarations) Act 1981.
19. Clause 20 of the Bill provides that in relation to development consisting of the construction of a scheduled work it is a condition of the deemed planning permission under section 19(1) of the Act that the development must be begun not later than the end of 10 years beginning with the day on which the Act is passed. Under clause 20(4) section 91 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 (limit of duration of planning permission) does not apply to deemed planning permission under section 19(1) of the proposed Act.
20. Clause 24 of the Bill Introduces Schedule 17 to the Bill which contains provision for the disapplication or modification of controls related to listed buildings.
21. Clause 29 of the Bill provides that orders under section 198(1) or 202(1) of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 and regulations under section 202A(1) of that Act and section 211(1) and (5) of that Act do not apply to certain tree works identified in clause 29(1).
22. Clause 31 of the Bill introduces Schedule 20 to the Bill which contains provision about water abstraction and impounding and other matters related to water and drainage. Paragraph 7 of Schedule 20 dis-applies the qualification within section 106(8) of the 1990 Act enabling a sewerage undertaker to refuse to accept HS2 waste water on grounds it may think fit. 23. Clause 32 of the Bill Introduces Schedule 21 to the Bill which contains provisions about the application of various provisions of the Building Act 1984 and building regulations and Schedule 22 of the Bill which contains provision about the application of the Pariy Wall etc. Act 1996. Paragraph 5 of Schedule 22 removes rights under Section 6 of the Party Wall Etc Act 1996 to underpinning where HS2 excavates adjacent to walls or foundations.
24. Clause 33 of the Bill introduces Schedule 23 of the Bill which dis-applies various controls such as permit schemes relating to works in or near streets and highways. Clause 34 of the Bill Introduces Schedule 24 to the Bill which contains provision about the use of heavy commercial vehicles Schedule 24 gives HS22 the right to seek permits to ignore lorry bans. Questions of safety do not seem expressly to be acknowledged among criteria for granting permits set out in Schedule 24 .
25. Clause 35 of the Bill Introduces Schedule 25 to the Bill which contains provision about noise on construction sites and noise which constitutes a statutory nuisance Schedule 25 suggests that it will be a defence to prosecutions for statutory nuisance to be able to show that noise is a consequence of HS2 works and cannot reasonably be avoided. Noise is a significant concern to your Petitioner especially in relation to construction works close to operational and/or investment buildings.
26. Clause 36 of the Bill introduces Schedule 26 to the Bill which dis-applies various controls under local Acts relating to London, Oxfordshire^ Staffordshire and the West Midlands including Parts 3 and 4 of the London Buildings Acts (Amendments) Act 1939.
27. Clause 47 (1) of the Bill proposes that the Secretary of State, if he considers that the construction or operation of Phase One of HS2 gives rise to the opportunity for regeneration or development of any land, will have power to acquire that land compulsorily. Clause 47(2) of the Bill will give the Secretary of State power to acquire land compulsorily to relocate the whole or part of an undertaking (which is defined to include a business or facility) if, as a result of the exercise of any of the powers under the Bill, the former site of the undertaking or part of it Is no longer capable of being used for the undertaking.
Your Petitioner and its properties
28. Your Petitioner is University College London C'UCL"). UCL is an Exempt Charity in accordance with the Charities Act 2006 (Statutory Instrument 1978, number 453). UCL is exempt from regulation by the Charity Commission but has, as its principal regulator, the Higher Education Funding Council for England. UCL is a Company Incorporated by Royal Charter (England/Wales), number: RCOO0631.
29. LiCL was founded in (and its central buildings date back to) 1826, some 11 years before Euston Station was first opened.
30. UCL is London's leading multidisciplinary university, with over 11,000 staff and 28,000 students. This includes over 15,000 undergraduate students and 12,000 graduate students, of whom 87% are studying full-time and 13% part-time. UCL provides excellence and leadership in teaching and research and was ranked fourth in the QS Worid University Rankings 2012/13 and 2013/14.
31. Your Petitioner is one of the largest employers, landowners and occupiers of property in Camden. Its core Bloomsbury Campus ("Campus"), mainly immediately to the South of Euston Road but with some properties also to the North of it, alone has a footprint of approximately 1 million sq ft. This falls within and contributes significantly to the character and appearance of the Bloomsbury Conservation Area. UCL occupies five Grade I listed buildings; four Grade II* listed buildings and 28 Grade II listed buildings.
32. Your Petitioner is currently embarking on an ambitious programme of renovation and redevelopment of its main Campus. The Bloomsbury Masterplan (2011) (the Masterplan) sets out a vision for the long term development and improvement of the Campus over the next ten to fifteen years, with expected investment of circa £1.2 billion . The Masterplan identifies a range of projects to deliver this vision and the best possible teaching, learning and research environment for its staff and students.
33. UCL hosts at its Campus a wide variety of research institutes with an even, wider variety of funding partners. Funding partners and supporters bf research include UK and overseas Government Departments, a range of UK and international charities and charitable foundations. Partners in research projects include a: wide selection of the worid's other great academic and research institutions.
34. Your Petitioner is also (along with the Wellcome Trust, the Medical Research Council, Imperial College London, Cancer Research UK and Kings College London) one of the founding partners in the Francis Crick Institute, which is located to the north of the British Library, adjacent to St Pancras Station. The Institute will carry out discovery biomedical research, with investment of over £500 million, bringing together over 1,500 research and support staff. It is currently under construction and occupation is due in 2015.
35. Your Petitioner's Campus is very heavily used. The vast majority of its 39,000 staff and student population commute into and out of the Campus on a dally basis. Observed daily footfall indicates daily Campus entry/exit movements to be approximately 40,000 with some 1,200 on Gower Place, 11,500 on Gower Street and 13,600 on Gordon Street. These numbers are equivalent to the total workforce of a medium sized town. Over a period of a year total entry/ exit movements would be in the region of 8-10 million.
36. Much navigation around campus is on foot and navigation between campus and halls of residence tends generally to be on foot, by bicycle or by public transport. Safe efficient travel to, from and around the Campus is vitally important to the efficient operation of the University and to its attraction to students and staff alike.
37. Many buildings within the Campus, including those fronting Gower Place and Gordon Street, house highly sensitive scientific apparatus, computer systems, and research and teaching activities, not to mention libraries and reading rooms which are themselves highly sensitive to noise, dust and vibration.
38. Many teaching and research activities are carried on in basement premises which are particularly sensitive to ground-borne noise and vibration. Many laboratories rely on "clean" rooms into which air isfinely filtered.
39. University activities are not only sensitive in a physical sense but the times of sensitivity also have significant peaks. Examination times at the beginnings and ends of term are periods of peak stress when travel and amenity (especially noise/vibration) disruption can cause particular difficulties. Moreover, the rhythm of university life means that peak hours for students to arrive at and leave campus differ from traditional peak periods for London commuter traffic and arrivals. By way of example, the peak periods of activity during term-time are 10am to 4pm and particularly between ten to and ten past the hour every hour when large numbers of students and staff travel through campus and between buildings within and around the campus on their way to and from lectures. This means that If HS2 works and activities are programmed at times of the day designed to avoid effects on peak period commuters, they stand to focus effects on UCL's academic and student populations.
40. The total area of your Petitioner's premises either subject to compulsory purchase powers under the Bill proposals or which stand otherwise to be affected totals more than 100,000 m2 (one million ft2 plus).
41. Your Petitioner owns or has an interest in and occupies the following properties in the London Borough of Camden which are subject to compulsory acquisition or use under the Bill.
Parcel Address Interest Floorspace All or Bill (London part purpose Borough of Camden)
52 and 53 Wolfson leasehold 5614 m2 All Demolition House, owner - 96 Stephenson year lease Way expiring on 29 September 2057 - arid part freehold owner 23 The Podium, leasehold 2113 m2 All Acquisition Euston owner first as a Station, floor -10 worksite Eversholt year lease prior to Street expiring 11 demolition March 2022
74, 75 and 132 and Leasehold 23308 m2 All Acquisition 76 140-142 owner - for Hampstead term demolition Road expiring 11 April 2023
1 Euston Leasehold 910 m2 All Acquisition Square Owner fifth for floor -10 demolition year lease expiring on 12 December 2022 In addition, your Petitioner has interests in a variety of buildings abutting Tottenham Court Road, Hampstead Road, North Gower Street, GOwer Street, Gower Place, Gordon Street, Endsleigh Gardens and Upper Woburn Place on which works are likely to take place, which are likely to include work sites Or are likely to be used by construction traffic or heavy mobile or stationary plant. These roads may also be used by traffic directly or indirectly diverted or displaced as a consequence of the construction or operation of the works. Your Petitioner's buildings are therefore liable to be injuriously affected by the works and their operation. These premises include:
Property Address Ownership Major Use Size
Prankerd Hbuse North Gower Freehold Student 1397 m2 Street Residences (47 residences)
Farr Institute 222 Euston Leasehold Teaching and 910 m2 Road Research
Kathleen Gower Place Freehold Laboratories, 9166 m2 Lonsdale teaching, Building research and administration
Lewis's Building 134-136 Freehold UCL Union 1897 m2 Gower Street
23 Gower Freehold UCL Union 378 m2 Place
Health Centre 3 Gower Freehold Student Medical 804 m2 Place Centre
25 Gordon Freehold UCL Union and 5884 m2 Street Maths teaching and research
Physics Building Gordon Freehold Teaching and 7820 m2 Street several research centres
London Centre 17/19 Freehold Interdisciplinary 3040 m2 for Gordon research Nanotechnology Street through a UCL/ Imperial College London joint enterprise
Bernard Katz Gower Freehold Research 5983 m2 Building Street and Centres of Gordon Department of
10 Property Address Ownership Major Use Size Street Blomechanical Engineering
Bloomsbury Gordon Freehold Playhouse, 7212 m2 Theatre Street Concert venue, sports centre, cafe and Students Union administrative building
Christopher 20 Gordon Freehold UCL Chemistry 13630 m2 Ingold Building Street Department and associated research centres
Wates House 22. Gordon Freehold Faculty of the 5890 m2 Street Built Environment (The Bartlett)
Drayton House 30 Gordon Leasehold UCL Faculty of 3490 m2 Street Economics and ESRC Centre for Economics and Social Evolution
Bentham House 4-8 Freehold UCL Faculty of 3608 m2 Endsleigh Laws Gardens
HiHel House Endsleigh Freehold UCL Faculty of 1974 m2 Gideon Schrier Street Laws Wing
Central House 14 Upper Freehold Department and 5796 m2 Wbburn Research Place Centres for Bartlett, UCL Alumni Relations and UCL Communications . and Media relations
42. Your Petitioner also owns a variety of premises on roads such as Endsleigh Street, Taviton Street, Gordon Square, Byng Place and Torrington Place which are to suffer increases in traffic levels and/or be used by construction traffic in connection with the construction or operation of the works.
11 43. It is also possible that UCL's interests in a variety of properties fronting Gordon Street, Gower Place and Endsleigh Gardens Include subsoil interests in land subject to compulsory purchase proposals in the Bill.
Your Petitioner and its rights, interests and property are injuriously affected by the Bill, to which your Petitioner objects for the reasons amongst others, here stated.
Your Petitioner's concerns
44. While your Petitioner supports the principle of a new railway system connecting London and the West Midlands, it's property interests are severely affected by the proposed works and/or the powers which would be granted by the Bill to the Secretary of State and/or the nominated undertaker. The affected properties are described below, followed by each of your Petitioner's concerns In relation to them.
45. Your Petitioner also has a serious concern that unless works and traffic movements are strictly controlled, there is likely to be a significant detrimental impad on UCL's staff and student community, and the national and international reputation of UCL as a destination of choice for the very best academic staff, undergraduate, post graduate and research students will be seriously impaired.
Risk of reputational damage
46. The worid's leading universities compete with one another for the very best academic staff, research students, post graduates and undergraduates. UCL's peer group includes US Ivy League campuses, Oxford, Cambridge, the Sorbonne and London Universities such as Imperial College, LSE and Kings College. Attracting top quality students and academic staff is critical to securing funding for research, which in turn is critical to national and international ratings. Whilst London is an attractive City to national and international students, it requires a willingness to embrace or tolerate urban conditions. UCL benefits at present from a rich history, some highly attractive historic buildings, a central location within the Bloomsbury Conservation Area and an environment which (with the exception of Gower Street) is comparatively tranquil, low trafficked, quiet and easily accessible by public transport. Your Petitioner's campus refurbishment proposals to date and those proposed for the future are essential to its competitive position in attracting new students, staff and research funding as well as to levels of satisfaction among existing students.
47. The major HS2 related works at Euston are projected to last for ten years or more. Works in the vicinity of UCL premises at Gordon Street, Gower Street, Gower Place, Endsleigh Gardens and Upper Woburn Place are extensive. The work site on Gordon Street at the junction with Gower Place and Endsleigh Gardens is projected to be occupied for 10 years. Public transport, pedestrian and cycle access to UCL stands to be heavily disrupted for much of the 10 year period. The tranquil, low trafficked, easily accessible environment that your Petitioner currently enjoys stands to be seriously undermined by the works unless they are closely controlled. If close and enforceable controls are not applied, and a perception is created that for 10 years or more the Euston area will be an environmentally challenged building site, there is a serious risk Of heavy reputational harm, and consequent economic loss to your Petitioner's University.
12 Properties particularly affected
Wolfson House
48. Your Petitioners own the leasehold to Wolfson House in the London Borough of Camden. This property houses your Petitioner's main data centre, housing custom built super-computers, research storage, the university's main administration systems and core IT provision to its staff and students, held on neariy one thousand servers. The availability and performance of the data centre is vital to the operation of your Petitioner's University as a worid leading place of learning and academic anci scientific research, as well as its support of and participation in research activities by partner institutions such as Imperial College London, University College Hospital and the Wellcome Foundation. The data centre is climate controlled, hyper-sensitive to disruptions of electrical services, sensitive to vibrations and has its own communications cable network consisting of over 1,000 fibre runs through numerous ducts in the areas Of proposed construction that connect the datacentre in a complex network to UCL's many buildings and partner institutions. The Data Centre is also vitally important to other institutions and their resilience. It is directly connected to JANET, operating as a supplier of JANET services to 23 institutions, including the British Museum, SOAS, UCLH, Great Ormond Street Hospital, National Gallery, Royal Astronomical Society, London Zoological Society, Birkbeck, University of Westminster and The London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
49. Wolfson House also houses laboratories intended for use for decanting research facilities during Campus regeneration since laboratory accommodation is very difficult to relocate or to find on the open market and your Petitioner's own facilities are already used to or beyond capacity.
50. If Wolfson House is to be acquired for the HS2 Project, it is vitally important to your Petitioner that the data centre functions performed by Wolfson House and the laboratories housed by Wolfson House are replaced and operational before Wolfson House is vacated. If that is not guaranteed by the Promoter, your Petitioner objects to provisions of the Bill authorising its compulsory acquisition.
51. Wolfson House is proposed to be acquired and demolished for a work including the reconstrudion of Euston Station. The Promoter's Environmental Statement suggests that preparatory and demolition works will occur in the vicinity of Wolfson House at any time from 2016 onwards. Until this property is acquired, it will be occupied and in use by your Petitioner. Your Petitioner is therefore concerned about noise, dust, vibration, access, building damage, deterioration of condition, maintenance of service integrity and avoidance of service interruptions from the construction of the works until such time as Wolfson House is vacated by your Petitioner. The national and international significance of your Petitioner's operations, the sensitivity of the equipment housed by Wolfson House to the likely physical effects of the works and the consequences for your Petitioner's operations of its failure are of such a magnitude that that the works should not be permitted to commence before facilities housed by Wolfson House have been relocated and are fully operational (with ail new or diverted internal and external data cabling links) fully installed and functional and that no works which might cause harm to its data links should be carried out without the most stringent protection measures first approved by your Petitioner having been implemented. The timescale for relocation from Wolfson House should allow at least 30 months following identification and approval of an appropriate location (assuming no delays arising from operational constraints, approvals and/or planning requirements).
13 The Podium and.No 1 Euston Square
52. Your Petitioner owns the leasehold to the first floor of the Podium at Eversholt Street and to the fifth floor of No 1 Euston Square, each in the London Borough of Camden. These premises are used for administrative accommodation, in the case of the Podium, among other things to accommodate those responsible for operation and maintenance of your Petitioner's data centre and related equipment at Wolfson House. Such are the pressures on accommodation owned and operated by your Petidoner that it is important that replacement premises are Identified, acquired and fitted out before these premises are compulsorily acquired from your Petitioner. Moreover, in the case of the Podium, given the importance of having staff immediately to hand, relocation could not practicably take place prior, to the re-housing of the Wolfson House facilities.
132 and 138-140 Hampstead Road
53. Numbers 132 and 138-140 Hampstead Road are occupied by your Petitioner predominantly for its internationally renowned Bartlett School Faculty of the Built Environment. This is a flexible, multi-purpose work space, including studios, workshops, exhibition space, engineering space, storage and other related uses. The premises have high ceilings, are particularly suited for their current purpose and are vitally important whilst the Bartlett School premises at Wates House are redeveloped as part of your Petitioner's Campus regeneration proposals. The premises are notable for having been acquired for rental at a very substantial discount to local rental levels and in being of a configuration which is simply not available on the open market close to your Petitioner's University. Equivalent accommodation would not be available on similarly favourable terms anywhere within reasonable travel distance of the Campus and then would not be similarly efficiently located to your Petitioner's Campus. If the premises are to be compulsorily acquired for the works, it is important that this does not occur before alternative premises as part of the Wates House redevelopment are available for use. It is also Important that sen/ices are protected, access is preserved and noise dust and vibration are strictly controlled should works be commenced by the Promoter before your Petitioner gives up occupation.
222 Euston Road - UCL Institute of Cardiovascular Science - Farr Institute of Health Informatics Research
54. The Farr Institute of Health Informatics Research is comprised of four nodes distributed across the UK and |ed from UCL, University of Manchester, Swansea University, and the University of Dundee. With a £17.5m-research award from a 10-funder consortium, plus additional £20m-capital funds from the Medical Research Council, the Farr Institute aims to deliver high-quality, cutting-edge research linking electronic health data with other forms of research and routinely collected data, as well as build capacity in health informatics research. The Farr Institute aims to provide the physical and electronic infrastructure to facilitate collaboration across the four nodes, support their safe use of patient and research data for medical research, and enable partnerships by providing a physical structure to co-locate NHS organizations, industry, and other UK academic centres. The Farr Institute occupies accommodation arranged over four above ground floors, a lower ground floor and a ground floor on Euston Road, directly adjacent to limits of deviation for Works 1/9B, 1/4A and 1/4 and is serviced from areas of Stephenson Way within limits of land to be acquired or used and which are subject to powers of temporary stopping up. Teaching accommodation is housed in lower ground floor areas and research space on floors from first floor upwards. Uses within lower ground floor areas would be highly sensitive to ground-borne noise
14 and vibration. Uses at ail levels would be sensitive to other forms of noise and vibration.
Properties Adjacent to Gower Street, Gower Place, Gordon Street, Endsleigh Gardens and Upper Woburn Place
55. The whole of Gower Place, and Endsleigh Gardens and parts of Gower Street, Gordon Street and Upper Woburn Place are:
• within the limits of land to be acquired or used;
• comprised in plots 19 to 24 inclusive;
• and within Table 3 of Schedule 4 of the Bill, which denotes roads which may be temporarily be stopped up.
56. Those parts of Gordon Street within plot 21 are additionally within the limits of deviation for Work No 1/3 (a passenger subway between Euston Station ticket hall, metropolitan line platforms at Euston Square Station and a new passenger access at Gordon Street)
57. The Bill provides that land within the limits of Land to be Acquired or Used may be used:
• to construct (inter alia) bridges, subways, roundabouts, lifts, stairs, escalators, means of access, shafts, buildings, apparatus, plant and machinery
• to construct (inter alia) retaining walls and other works
• to demolish buildings and structures
• to alter or alter the position of other apparatus including mains, sewers, drains and cables
• to carry out and maintain any other works as may be necessary or expedient.
58. The Bill also provides that roads listed in Table 3 of Schedule 4 may be temporarily stopped up (save as to pedestrian access) subject to consultation (on grounds of public safety and convenience) only with the highway authority and that if temporarily stopped up could be used as a work site and that apparatus may be placed, repositioned, removed or maintained within it.
59. Your Petitioner owns and occupies a wide variety of properties adjacent to Gower Street, Gower Place, Gordon Street, Endsleigh Gardens and Upper Woburn Place. Some are listed buildings. All are within the Bloomsbury Conservation Area. All are used for teaching, research and/or other sensitive university uses. Many are subject to proposals in your Petitioner's Bloomsbury Masterplan. Critically important service media conveying critically important services and data? run within these roads. Gower Place, Endsleigh Gardens, and Gordon Street are also fundamentally Important as quiet, safe, pedestrian and cycle thoroughfares, linking many buildings on your Petitioner's Campus with one another and with transport nodes at Euston, Euston Square and Tottenham Court Road.
60. Your Petitioner is concerned about noise, dust, vibration, access, building damage, deterioration of condition. Interference with sensitive apparatus and activities and
15 service interruptions from the construction of the works, and noise and vibration from the operation of the works. Your Petitioner is particulariy concerned at potential for closure of Endsleigh Gardens and Gower Street and scope for it to be used as a lorry holding area, a dedicated construction traffic route or as a diversion route for traffic when intensive works are carried out to Euston Road, and your Petitioner is concerned about long-term work sites and major street and services works on and adjacent to these roads and the roads that connect to them, especially Gordon Street, Upper Woburn Place and Gower Street. Your Petitioner is extremely concerned that noise, dust, fumes and vibration from the Promoter's activities and uses will have a serious impact on teaching and research premises, sensitive scientiflc apparatus and the operation of the University as well as the operations and members of its Student Union if appropriate mitigation measures are not guaranteed by the Promoter and enforceable by your Petitioner. Your Petitioner is further concerned about potential for these roads to be stopped up temporarily (which in the context Of the works could be for as long as 10 years or more) with consequent prevention of Or limitations on pedestrian and vehicular access and major interference with your Petitioner's teaching, research, estate management and campus renewal activities. Your Petitioner has a year round need for safe pedestrian and cycle access as well as full vehicular access for servicing and development works.
61, YOur Petitioner lists the buildings likely to be affected individually in order to convey: the scale of areas likely to be affected; the individual and cumulative sensitivity of the activities carried on in these buildings; and the potential scale of effects on your Petitioner and its activities; and the importance of strict controls, enforceable by your Petitioner, being placed on works if grave loss to your Petitioner is to be avoided or mitigated. The concerns outlined above apply to varying degrees to all buildings,
62. The buildings owned and occupied by your Petitioner fronting onto parts of Gower Street, Gordon Street, Gower Place, Endsleigh Gardens and Upper Woburn Place include:
Kathleen Lonsdale Building
• The Kathleen Lonsdale Building, on Gower Place, is Grade II listed. It has four above ground floors, and three lower ground levels including a mezzanine. It is used for teaching, research and social learning space for Earth Sciences, Physics, Astronomy and Chemistry Faculties, Among the facilities in the Kathleen Lonsdale Building are extensive laboratories at below ground levels. These include clean rooms requiring air fllters of a standard much higher than usual. Amongst the equipment housed here are a variety of spectrometers, laser systems, oscillators and microscopes used for research programmes vital to meeting a variety of research projects. These systems are hyper-sensitive to vibration and noise (whether air or ground borne) and to dust. Lower ground walls are particularly susceptible to ground borne noise and vibration effects. The Kathleen Lonsdale Building is to be extensively refurbished between Autumn 2014 and Autumn 2016,
Student Medical Centre
• The Student Medical Centre is located on Gower Place. It has 6 above ground floors. Examination and consulting rooms for doctors and dentists are between the second and fifth floors. It is located almost diagonally opposite the proposed HS2 Gordon Street work site. Consulting rooms overlook Gower Place and are sensitive to airborne noise and dust.
16 Gower Court
The archway in Gower Place beneath the Student Medical Centre and immediately to the east of Kathleen Lonsdale Building gives access to Gower Court. It is an important internal service route, used for both routine and time-sensitive deliveries at all times of day and night and throughout the year. It is planned to be used by UCL as a haul route for refurbishment works to the Kathleen Lonsdale Building itself, Wilkins Terrace and Lower Refectory and the Bioomsbury Theatre,
Drayton House
Drayton House, part of the Grade II Listed Friends House building complex, houses your Petitioner's Economics Faculty and related Economic and Social Research Council Centre for Economic Learning and Social Evolution, Its western facade is directly adjacent to HS2's proposed Gordon Street work site and the main access is central to this facade. Drayton House accommodation is arranged over three above ground floors, a ground floor and a lower ground floor. The lower ground floor Includes a lecture theatre and seminar accommodation. Research and teaching accommodation and academic offices are on remaining floors. The structure of Drayton House is such as readily to transmit ground borne noise and vibration through Its fabric,
Wates House
Wates House is located on Endsleigh Gardens at its junction with Gordon Street, diagonally opposite the HS2 Gordon Street work site, Wates House is the home of your Petitioner's internationally renowned Bartlett School of the Built Environment, It is scheduled to be comprehensively remodelled and extended between Summer 2014 and Summer 2016 to provide 6 floors above ground, one below ground and one at ground level.
Physics Building
The eastern facade of your Petitioner's Physics Building is located on Gordon Street, The Physics Building Is arranged over 7 above ground floors, two basement levels and a ground floor. It houses several research centres. Lower ground levels accommodate laboratories and research accommodation housing highly sensitive laser equipment. Upper levels provide teaching, research, academic and laboratory accommodation, along with some office accommodation. The laser equipment includes two femtosecond laser systems and a super resolution fluorescence lifetime imaging microscope which would be adversely affected to the exent of being impossible to run if subjected to vibration or dust levels beyond those currently encountered.
London Centre for Nanotechnology
The London Centre for Nanotechnology (LCN) is located at 17-19 Gordon Street. It occupies four above ground floors a ground floor and two lower ground floors. Laboratories are located on the Lower Ground Floor and research and office accommodation on remaining floors, LCN is a joint enterprise between your Petitioner and Imperial College London. In bringing together worid-class infrastructure and leading nanotechnology research activities, the Centre has the critical mass to compete with the best peer institutes worid^wide. Research programmes are aligned to three
17 key areas, namely Planet Care, Healthcare and Information Technology and exploit core competencies in the biomedical, physical and engineering sciences. LCN houses highly sensitive measuring apparatus, has clean rooms requiring air fllters of a standard much higher than usual and is used to conduct experiments so sensitive to ground-borne vibration that they can be only carried out during night-time hours when the London Underground system is shut down. The LCN is located within approximately 75 metres of the HS2 Gordon Street work site and diagonally adjacent to the limits of land to be acquired or used (Plot 22) within Gordon Street,
Christopher Ingold Building
The Christopher Ingold Building is located on Gordon Street and its northern and western facades abut Plot 22 of the Promoter's Land to be Acquired or Used within Gordon Street, It is within 75 metres of the HS2 Gordon Street work site. The Christopher Ingold Building houses your Petitioner Chemistry Department and associated research centres. It is arranged over four above ground floors, a ground floor and a lower ground floor. The Christopher Ingold Building houses many laboratories at each floor above and belovv ground level. Many of these laboratories house equipment which is highly sensitive to vibration, including laser equipment. Many are also "clean" rooms requiring especially flne air flltration and are therefore sensitive to airborne dust. The Christopher Ingold Building also houses below ground lecture theatres and Is used as one of the primary centres for your Petitioner's examinations,
Bernard Katz House
Bernard Katz House houses research centres of your Petitioner's Department of Biomechanical Engineering, It also houses biochemical engineering accommodation. Bernard Katz House is located adjacent to the Physics Building and one block back from Gordon Street. It is arranged over four floors above ground, two below ground and a ground floor. Laboratories housing very sensitive laser equipment are located on lower ground floors and teaching and research accommodation, including laboratories for cell research on upper floors. Equipment and activities within Bernard Katz House are particulariy sensitive to vibration and noise and laboratories have especially flne filtration systems liable to be clogged if there is airborne dust. The activities carried on in Bernard Katz Building are such that sensitivity to ground-borne vibration would be no less than that of the London Centre for Nanotechnology referred to above,
Bentham House and Gordon Schrier Wing
Bentham House and the Gordon Schrier Wing house your Petitioner's internationally renowned Faculty of Laws. They are located at 4-8 Endsleigh Gardens and 1 Endsleigh Street. They include basement lecture theatres and teaching accommodation on five above ground floors as well as a ground floor and two lower ground levels. Bentham House Is an examination venue for your Petitioner and not only abuts the Endsleigh Gardens area within Limits of Land to be Acquired and Used (Plot 20) but Is within 50 metres of the Junction between Endsleigh Gardens and Upper Woburn Place and of the Upper Woburn Place area within Limits of Land to be Acquired or Used. Teaching activities carried on within Bentham House and the Gordon Schrier Wing would be particularly sensitive to ground or
18 air borne noise or vibration as well as to airborne dust and any deterioration in air quality.
Central House
Central House is located at 14 Upper Woburn Place, It houses elements of your Petitioner's Bartlett School of the Built Environment as well as its Media and Communications and Alumni Relations Teams, It is arranged over a lower ground, ground and five above ground floors. The teaching and office uses within this building would be sensitive to noise, vibration, deterioration in air quality or interference with access,
Bloomsbury Theatre
Your Petitioner's Bloomsbury Theatre is located on Gordon Street, immediately opposite the Christopher Ingold Building ahd adjacent to the London Centre for Nanotechnology. It hosts a high quality, 535 seater auditorium as well as a popular cafe, sports centre and administrative offices for your Petitioner's Students Union, The auditorium is used for theatre, film screenings, opera, music events and comedy concerts. It hosts up to 20 events every month. The Bloomsbury Theatre is scheduled to be refurbished as part of your Petitioner's Campus regeneration proposals and a lower ground floor studio auditorium is to be installed over the period to the end of 2015. The Bloomsbury Theatre is within 50 metres of the Promoter's area of land to be acquired or used within Gordon Street (Plot 22) and within 125 metres of the Promoter's Gordon Street work site. The uses within the Bloomsbury Theatre would be particularly sensitive to air borne noise, to ground-borne noise and vibration and to any interference with access,
25 Gordon Street - Gordon's Cafe (Ground Floor); Phineas (J'' Floor bar and venue); UCLU and Teaching rooms
25 Gordon Street houses a ground floor cafe and third floor bar operated by your Petitioner's Student's Union and Students Union administrative offices and teaching rooms and laboratories used predominantly by your Petitioner's mathematics and physics faculty, 25 Gordon Street is arranged over two lower ground floors a ground floor and eight floors above ground. Laboratories are located on the two lower ground floors, 25 Gordon Street abuts the junction between Gower Place and Gordon Street, It is immediately adjacent to Plots 21,22 and 23 within the Promoter's Limits of Deviation for Work No 1/3 and Gordon Street and Gower Place Limits of Land to be Acquired or Used and the HS2 Gordon Street work site, 25 Gordon Street is serviced via Gower Court, immediately to the West along Gower Place. Apart from teaching and research accommodation being sensitive to noise and vibration, ground floor cafe accommodation would be severely affected by nearby work sites or traffic increases. The Third Floor Bar and music venue would be sensitive to noise,
Lewis's Building and 23 Gower Place (including the Huntley and Richard Mully Basement Bar and Venue)
Lewis's Building and 23 Gower Place are Grade II listed buildings. The building is arranged over five storeys above a ground and lower ground floor. These buildings have recently been refurbished to provide a UCL Students' Union operated public house (the Huntley) at ground floor, a basement bar and music and comedy venue (the Richard Mully Bar) a
19 coffee bar and a selection of office and versatile spaces on the upper floors, including a dance studio and meeting rooms. Space on the third and fourth floors is occupied by your Petitioner's Earth Science Department. These buildings abut the Promoter's Gbwer Place (Plot 23) and Gower Street (Plot 24) areas of Land to be Acquired or Used, The uses within Lewis's Building and 23 Gower Place are sensitive to ground borne vibration or noise, airborne dust or noise and to any interference with access.
Concerns ih relation to works
Noise
63, Your Petitioner is concerned about noise during construction and operation of the works. Your Petitioner's properties are used for educational purposes, where quiet surroundings are necessary for teaching and study, and are in use from 9 a,m, until 10 p.m., Monday until Friday, and from 9 am. until 5 p.m. on Saturday. In addition the UCLU and Bloomsbury Theatre venues above host events running until 11pm most evenings. Your Petitioner would wish to see an effective noise monitoring system in place before commencement and during construction of the works. Your Petitioner requests that agreement be reached on a threshold for permitted noise levels during the works (whether from construction of the works themselves of from vehicles used in or displaced by the works) for each of your Petitioner's properties. If any of these thresholds is exceeded, the nominated undertaker must be obliged to cease construction until such time as remedial measures are in place which will reduce noise levels below the agreed threshold. Your Petitioner would wish to be consulted about the periods when louder construction events will be permitted to occur.
64, For each of your Petitioner's properties, your Petitioner would wish a study (to a design approved by your Petitioner) to be undertaken to assess the risk from ground-borne operational noise and that suitable measures and strategies be agreed with your Petitioner and implemented before the commencement of construction, at the Promoter's expense such as to ensure that neither ground borne nor airborne noise exceeds the baseline encountered within your Petitioner's properties before works are commenced,
65, Your Petitioner would wish to see direct undertakings given to your Petitioner by the Promoter in respect of each of the above matters and to see the waiver proposed under Clause 35 and Schedule 25 of the Bill to be explicitly subservient to such undertakings.
Dust and air quality
66, Your Petitioner is concerned about dust and dirt produced during construction. Your Petitioner would wish to see the Promoter Undertake to your Honourable House and to your Petitioner to adhere to the measures to reduce and control dust set out in the Construction Code and Local Environment Management Plan and to take specific further measures to address your Petitioner's special sensitivity to airborne dust and fumes affecting its properties. Your Petitioner would wish the Promoter to undertake to carry out additional mitigation if dust or fumes become or continue to be a nuisance to your Petitioner's properties or materially to prejudice the activities carried on within them. Your Petitioner would wish the undertaking given by the Promoter to set as a standard that neither dust nor fumes should exceed pre-works baselines as measured to a study to be carried out to a specification agreed with your Petitioner.
20 67. Your Petitioner is concerned that heavy goods and other construction vehicles will be directed and/or left standing close to your Petitioner's premises with consequent adverse effects on air quality. They request that restrictions be imposed (a) on the types of vehicles and stationary plant used In connection with the works to ensure that they are designed operated and maintained to be ultra-low emission, (b) on routeing of works traffic and (c) diversion and displacement of non-works traffic in each case to ensure that the air quality in the vicinity of your Petitioner's premises is not made worse than at present. Your Petitioner requests that an air quality monitoring system be put in place to ensure that the air quality in the location of affected properties is not significantly diminished and that your Petitioner receives an enforceable undertaking from the Promoter to that effect.
68. Your Petitioner requests in addition that it be awarded compensation for additional expenses caused by dust and dirt such as more frequent cleaning of its properties and more frequent replacement of air conditioning filters and as to any consequential inability to operate any clean rooms within the properties as efficiently as hitherto.
Vibration
69. Your Petitioner is concerned about vibration both during construction of and on completion of the works including any vibration emanating from fixed or mobile plant or from vehicles used in connection with the works. Your Petitioner fears that damage will result from vibration if piles in the vicinity are driven rather than bored or hand-dug. Your Petitioner feats that vibrations caused by tunnelling or other excavadon or construction activities will cause disturbance to the occupiers of their properties and to activities carried on within them especially activities which are particularly sensitive to vibration. Your Petitioner also fears that other construction methods yet to be planned may also cause vibration. Your Petitioner requests that agreement be reached on vibration limits (which should not unless otherwise agreed exceed pre-works baselines), to be monitored by a vibration monitoring system, with additional enhanced levels of protection for specific buildings where there is particularly sensitive apparatus and on times of day when (save in respect of those buildings) higher vibration activities be permitted. Should those limits be exceeded then c:onstruction should cease until appropriate management and mitigation measures are In place.
Equipment sensitivity
70. Your Petitioner is particularly concerned about effects of dust noise and vibration oh especially sensitive premises and equipment used at locations such as the Physics Building and LCN.
71. In relation to LCN, examples of hyper-sensitivities to noise and vibration include the following:
• Basement laboratories within LCN include scanning tunnelling microscopes (STMs), atomic force microscopes (AFMs) a scanning probe microscope (SPM) and focussed ion beam nanofabrication and imaging equipment (FIBs).
• STMs would be at particularly high risk during the works. Your Petitioner undertakes atomic resolution imaging and spectroscopic measurements on the surfaces of various materials. This requires the junction between the tip and sample to be very stable, ideally with vibrations that are In the range of a few picometres (a picometre is a trillionth of a metre - 0,000000001 milimetre) or less. Even with a variety of Isolator systems Ih
21 place, the equipment is already at the limit of vibration and movement that can be tolerated. Any significant increase in vibration would have severe consequences, ranging from significantly worsening the quality of results from experiments to completely preventing experiments from being performed,
• AFMS at the LCN are used by a large community (campus and external users, on collaboration or as a generic facility) to characterise surfaces at molecular and sometimes even atomic resolution. Such characterisation Is necessary for the development and quality control of new electronic devices, for studying the mechanisms of various bio medically relevant processes (e.g,, the Immune response of our bodies to cancerous cells), and for fundamental science on understanding the world of atoms and molecules. In these microscopes, a sharp tip is brought in close proximity to the sample surface, and raster-scanned over the surface to map the surface contours. For this to be successful, the tip is positioned at a distance from the surface that needs to be kept stable to within 0,1 nanometre (0,0000001 millimetre). After allowing for the effects of damping equipment in place noise or vibration in excess of talking or walking in the laboratory would cause this tolerance to be exceeded,
• The SPM at the LCN measures surfaces with atomic resolution (better than 0,1 nm) in the horizontal and vertical plane. The operational manual notes "Mechanical or acoustic noise sources, e.g, building vibration, air conditioning, compressors, pumps, laboratory equipment, lifts/elevators, workshop machines, traffic outside, people walking or talking may affect the stability of your STM-measurements. Please note: coupling to external noise can be reduced by employing active damping legs." It is clear that any significant additional noise or vibration will have a negative effect on measurements during experiments even with active damping legs in place.
• There are three FIBs at the LCN with a combined value of £2,5M, supporting research projects of combined value of approximately £25M, These are used to fabricate quantum electronic devices with nanometre precision. They are also used for imaging experiments in neurophysiology. Whilst a special floor has been installed in the laboratory in which they are located, to isolate it from the effects of the Metropolitan Line, more local sources of noise (even as minor as people talking) cannot be suppressed or isolated. The operators of LCN are concerned that unless very strictly controlled the works could put an end to your Petitioner's internationally- recognised projects in in focussed ion beam nanofabrication with consequent loss of contracts for research,
72, In relation to the Physics Building, examples of hyper-sensitivities to noise dust and vibration include:
• optical science laboratories where precision optics for astronomy, requiring a dust free atmosphere in production and where testing requires a vibration free environment since surface measurements have to be accurate to a few tens of nanometers. Noise can hinder the testing of these optics; especially low frequency subsonic noise that moves a whole laboratory,
• work on X-ray imaging, which requires very careful alignment on an optical table,
22 • experiments on quantum computing which also rely on a clean atmosphere and lack of vibrations.
• use of Raman microscopy and very sensitive confocal microscopy which involve probe of the vibrational energy levels at a molecular level
73. It is vitally important to your Petitioner that the worid-leading research activities undertaken using apparatus such as the above are not prejudiced or interfered with. This will require very precise commitments from the Promoter and the nominated undertaker as to pre-emptive measures, performance standards and proactive monitoring management and enforcement if aspects of the works capable of generating dust noise and vibration are to be compatible with your Petitioner's research activities. Your Petitioner will request undertakings from the Promoter and Its nominated undertaker to this effect.
Access
74. Your Petitioner notes the Obligation under paragraph 6(2) of Schedule 4 to the Bill to provide reasonable access for pedestrians going to or from premises abutting a highway that has been temporarily stopped up. Your Petitioner requests that clear and unimpeded pedestrian access be maintained in all other cases as well, such as in the event Of the erection of hoardings and scaffolding, use of the footway next to the property, the placing of equipment and apparatus there, and the parking, loading and unloading of vehicles, either by means of amendment of the Bill or agreement with your Petitioner, Your Petitioner further requests that the Promoter be required to undertake to your Petitioner's satisfaction that unimpeded vehicular access to your Petitioner's properties be maintained at all times (including access for campus redevelopment and regeneration purposes) and that compensation be awarded for any costs incurred through inability to service or park at their properties due to the works. Your Petitioner requests that the Promoter ensures that adequate and clearly signposted diversions are put in place for pedestrians, taxis, buses and general traffic, and that the occupants of buildings affected by these diversions be notifled prior to the commencement of the works and be given advance notice of any changes to access arrangements.
75. Your Petitioner asks that the Promoter be required to undertake that emergency exits, escape routes and muster points in respect of each of your Petitioner's properties must be kept clear and unobstructed at all times during which works are being undertaken.
76. Your Petitioner further asks that the Promoter be required to undertake not to divert traffic from Euston Road, Gower Street, Gordon Street or Upper Woburn Place onto Gower Place or Endsleigh Gardens.
Campus Masterplan and Regeneration
77. Your Petitioner has embarked on an ambitious programme of regeneration of its Campus , This involves expenditure of more than £l,2billlon over 10 to 15 years with up to 800 construction workers being on site at any one time. There will be signiflcant volumes of activity and strictly controlled construction traffic during the course of the works to deliver this regeneration.
78. The Promoter's Environmental Statement entirely omitted to take account of your Petitioner's proposals despite their having been published as long ago as 2010, Your Petitioner requests that the Promoter be required to take account of your Petitioner's proposals and activities as part of the baseline against which the Promoter's construction activities must be considered for the purposes of ensuring
23 the acceptability of the works proposed by the Bill ahd that your Petitioner's proposals are given priority in terms of infrastructure and environmental capacity.
79. Any delay or additional cost to your Petitioner in carrying out its proposals which result from the works should be fully compensated as a condition of the works proposed by the Bill being allowed to proceed,
80, Your Petitioner asks that the Promoter be required to undertake to your Petitioner that contracts let in respect of the works should include requirements concerning vehicle routeing, service protections, plant and equipment to be used, noise dust and vibration controls and hours and days of working which from the perspective Of protecting the amenity, operation and safety of your Petitioner's properties (especially those with particular sensitivities) which are no less stringent than those to be included in your Petitioner's own construction contracts for works as part of Campus redevelopment and regeneration.
Building damage
81. Your Petitioner is concerned about settlement and vibration effects on Its properties. Your Petitioner would wish to see effective measures in place to prevent building damage before the commencement of any works. Your Petitioner would wish to see pre^construction surveys carried out prior to the commencement of works, and an effective and agreed monitoring system in place before commencement and during construction of the works, to measure the exact effect of any settlement on these properties. There must in your Petitioner's submission be a threshold agreed between your Petitioner and the Promoter for ground movement within the vicinity of the properties or distortions of the structure of the properties whether the direct result of construction activities or the result of construction traffic or traffic displaced by construction traffic or works related activities or diversions. If that threshold is exceeded then it is imperative that the undertaker nominated to carry out the works is obliged to cease construction until such time as remedial measures are in place which will minimise settlement and consequently avoid distress to the buildings. Any necessary safeguarding or remedial measures are to be agreed between your Petitioner and the nominated undertaker and included in an undertaking enforceable by your Petitioner, Your Petitioner requests that its consultants be given timely access to relevant data on settlement and other engineering information,
82, Your Petitioner is concerned that Schedule 2 to the Bill does not have sufficient scope to Include all possible methods of protecting structural integrity. Your Petitioner would wish to see that Schedule extended to cover all possible mitigation methods that might be employed, while retaining flexibility for future redevelopment,
83, Your Petitioner is further concerned that Clause 2 of and Schedule 2 to the Bill would entitle the Promoter or its nominated undertaker compulsorily to enter onto land within the limits of deviation or land to be acquired or used and other land within a relevant distance to survey, strengthen buildings, install and operate nionitoring apparatus. It is vitally important that your Petitioner's properties are kept secure and that your Petitioner has control over what happens within and to its properties. Your Petitioner therefore requests that the Promoter be required to undertake to exercise these powers in respect of your Petitioner's properties only to the extent requested by your Petitioner to do so and not to exercise these powers in respect of yOur Petitioner's properties unless requested to do so.
84. Where protective works are proposed to or in the vicinity of your Petitioner's properties, your Petitioner requests that they are only undertaken to a design, at a
24 time and in accordance with a specification first approved by your Petitioner, that your Petitioner has the opportunity to carry out those works at the cost of the Promoter and that otherwise your Petitioner has direct rights of redress against the person carrying out such protective works.
Deterioration of condition
85. Your Petitioner is concerned that the condition of its properties will deteriorate as a result of the works. Your Petitioner intends to commission a condition survey of the property shortly before the commencement of the works and shortly after their completion, with interim surveys to assess the progress of any deterioration and to keep a log of contemporaneous construction activities nearby, including those as part of your Petitioner's Campus redevelopment and regeneration activities. Your Petitioner requests that the Promoter be required to undertake that the costs of carrying out such surveys, and of preventing or rectifying any deterioration in the condition of any property found to be due to the works, be reimbursed by the Promoter.
Utility service interruptions or deterioration
86. Your Petitioner undertakes intensive, highly important and sensitive research activities involving highly sensitive apparatus and collection, transmission and processing of very large volumes of highly sensitive data. They would wish their properties to enjoy uninterrupted and unimpaired access to services such as electricity, telecommunications, broadband, gas, water and sewerage throughout the periods of construction and operation of the works,
87. For any properties that may be particularly vulnerable to service interruptions or deterioration, your Petitioner request that the Promoter undertakes to your Petitioner that the Promoter will put in place and at all times operate safeguards and measures to ensure that services can continue at no less than their current capacity and reliability throughout the duration of the works as a precondition of the works being permitted to proceed and that in every other case, they and the occupiers of their properties are given advance warning of critical operations when interruptions are most likely, in order that allowance can be made for such periods, and that should any interruptions occur, their durations are minimised.
Construction code
88. Your Petitioner requests that the Promoter's proposed Construction Code should meet or exceed the requirements of other applicable codes, so that the standard of construction is no worse than is currently permitted. Your Petitioner's requests that the Construction Code impose legally enforceable requirements on the Promoter and its nominated undertaker rather than merely setting out vague, unenforceable intentions.
Compulsory acquisition of land
89. Four of your Petitioner's properties are proposed to be acquired for demolition. Your Petitioner uses these properties for educational and related data storage and processing and administration purposes and will need considerably longer to plan alternative arrangements than the standard three months' notice period for entry by the Promoter, Indeed your Petitioner's needs are such that replacements for these premises and for the facilities housed by them must be obtained and commissioned (with all new or diverted internal and external data cabling links) fully installed and functional prior to your Petitioner's premises being acquired. The
25 timescale for relocation from Wolfson House should allow at least 30 months following identification and approval of an appropriate location - assuming no delays arising from operational constraints, approvals and/or planning requirements. Furthermore the activities carried on and equipment housed at Wolfson House are of such sensitivity that works likely to cause a disruption to their servicres, or to cause dust, noise or vibration such as to be capable or interfering with their operation should be prohibited until such time as replacement facilities are in place and operational and that no works which might cause harm to its data links (wherever located) should be carried out without the most stringent protection measures first approved by your Petitioner having been implemented. Your Petitioner according requests that undertakings to the above effect be given by the Promoter to that effect,
90. Given the close inter-relationship between the operation and maintenance of the data centre at Wolfson House and the need to have personnel responsible for maintaining ahd operating data centre functions close at hand, your Petitioners request an undertaking from the Promoter to the effect that the Podium will not be acquired before replacements for the Wolfson House premises and for the facilities housed by them have been be obtained and commissioned (with all new or diverted internal and external data cabling links) fully installed and functional,
91. Your Petitioner generally requests that the Promoter should be precluded from acquiring any of your Petitioner's properties other than by agreement. Your Petitioner is willing to Cooperate with the Promoter but questions of timing and of ensuring replacement facilities are in place and functional prior to properties being given up are of vital importance,
92. Your Petitioner notes Clause 47 of the Bill, Your Petitioner considers that this should be deleted as a pre-condition of the Bill being allowed to proceed. Clause 47 (1) of the Bill proposes that the Secretary of State, if he considers that the construction or operation of Phase One of HS2 gives rise to the opportunity for regeneration or development of any land, will have power to acquire that land compulsorily. The operation of this power has neither been environmentally assessed nor has it been justified. It is both disproportionate and too general. It is essentially a power of "land grab" without there being any filter concerning the value of current land uses and buildings to townscape, local character or amenity. If it is to be included, in the Bill it should expressly not apply to any of your Petitioner's properties.
Provision of information and consultation
93. Your Petitioner has serious concerns over the provision of information supplied by the Promoter, both prior to the deposit of the Bill and up to the date of the deposit of this petition. This has meant that thorough and detailed consideration of the proposed project, its impacts and benefits have been impossible to formulate. Your Petitioner is concerned as to the adequacy of the Environmental Statement, Moreover, ancillary documentation such as the proposed Code of Construction Practice remains in a draft form which is neither acceptable In principle, nor in its presumptions, proposals and extent of detail.
Environmental Statement: sufficiency and accuracy
94. In accordance with the standing orders of your Honourable House, comments on the Environmental Statement deposited with the Bill were invited in the newspaper notices that were published in accordance with the standing orders of your honourable House when the Bill was deposited. Your Petitioner sent detailed
26 comments to the promoter of the Bill in response, and these have been the subject of a report by the independent assessor appointed by your honourable House,
95. Your Petitioner has raised many concerns about the adequacy and accuracy of the Environmental Statement. Fundamental deficiencies in the Environmental Statement were identified by your Petitioner, including the a failure to consider or report on likely significant effects on your Petitioner, its Campus and its operations associated with wOrks on and to the South of Euston Road.
Compensation
96. Your Petitioner is concerned that in order to avoid serious prejudice to its operations and If the programme for the works is not to be delayed, it will be necessary to procure alternative premises and to rehouse sensitive equipment and activities away from the areas likely to be most affected by the works, including those premises to be acquired for occupation or demolition early in the construction programme, well in advance of the Bill being enacted. Your Petitioner is concerned that the Compensation provisions in the Bill would not allow costs in connection with such activities to be recovered. Your Petitioner therefore requests that provision is made in the Bill or that an undertaking is required of the Promoter and enforceable by your Petitioner to ensure that all costs of any such activities on the part of ybur Petitioner are indemnified by the Promoter as a precondition to proceeding with the works authorised by the Bill.
97. More generally your Petitioner is concerned that the compensation regime proposed in the Bill may be such as to preclude recovery by your Petitioner of costs for disturbance severance or injurious affection to some [? to some what land?] unless land is acquired or contiguous and adjacent land is acquired from your Petitioner, Your Petitioner is concerned that disruption deriving from the works will be extensive and that your Petitioner will be severely and adversely affected even if land is not acquired or if compensation under the compensation code proposed by the Bill would not be available. Your Petitioner requests that the Compensation Code proposed by the Bill should be modified such that loss suffered by your Petitioner as a consequence of construction of works nearby should be recoverable even if land is not acquired or if land acquired would be too remote from the loss suffered to ground a claim.
Protective hoardings and noise protection barriers
98. Your Petitioner notes the intention to erect protective hoardings and noise barriers around works. It notes that these may be extensive and that many will delineate pedestrian routes to and from your Petitioner's properties and that some will be close to entrances of or visible from your Petitioner's properties. Your Petitioner requests that signposting incorporated within and the design of surface treatment Of any such hoardings be agreed with your Petitioner and that they are compatible with the high class academic standards and environment that your Petitioner is keen to promote on and in the vicinity of your Petitioner's Campus, They also ask that the hoardings shoUld not be used for commercial advertisements unless otherwise agreed.
Design of works to provide new pedestrian subway and entrances at Gordon Street
99. Your Petitioner notes that a new pedestrian area, new pedestrian subway and new pedestrian entrances are to be created at Gordon Street immediately opposite your Petitioner's Wates House (as proposed to be refurbished), immediately outside Drayton House (as occupied by your Petitioner) and diagonally opposite other properties occupied by your Petitioner. Your Petitioner also notes that the
27 Promoter's Environmental Statement suggests that this work site is scheduled to be occupied for some 10 years and that Gordon Street between Endsleigh Gardens and Euston Road is permanently to be stopped up,
100, Your Petitioner welcomes the proposed new pedestrian subway and entrance to Euston Square Underground but is concerned that:
• The Gordon Street work site should be subject to strict noise, dust and other environmental controls such as to ensure that your Petitioner's environment and amenity are not prejudiced any more than is absolutely necessary to construct relevant works;
• Whilst works are being carried out the work site should be encapsulated and sealed from above as well as from the sides so as to prevent upward release of noise and dust and to protect amenity within overlooking and adjacent buildings;
• The design of any temporary hoardings be subject to the approval processes referred to above;
• The stopped up area of Gordon Street should be turned into attractive open space such as to complement the qualities of the area in which it is situated; and
• The design of any permanent above ground features should be subject to local consultation and approval processes with the objective of ensuring that it complements the qualities of the neighbouring Wellcome Building, the Grade II listed Drayton House and the (then) newly refurbished Wates House and Kathleen Lonsdale Building,
General matters
101, As a general matter, your Petitioner submits that provision should be made for the Promoter to repay to your Petitioner all proper costs, charges and expenses (including the proper fees of such professional advisers as it may instruct) reasonably incurred In consequence of the Bill or of any provision made as a result of this Petition.
102, Your Petitioner is mindful that certain powers under the Bill are written on the basis that they are to be exercised by the Promoter's nominated undertaker. The nominated undertaker does not yet exist. Your Petitioner has therefore requested undertakings and other commitments on the part of the Promoter on the basis that the Promoter should commit either to discharge such undertaking or (where the nominated undertaker would exercise such power) to procure that the nominated undertaker will when appointed do so,
103, There are other clauses and provisions in the Bill which, if passed into law as they now stand, will prejudicially affect your Petitioner and its rights, interests and property and for which no adequate provision is made to protect your Petitioner, Your Petitioner asks that such clauses and provisions (including those outlined eariier in this Petition) be qualified In such a way as to acidress and not to conflict with the protections sought by your Petidoner in this Petition.
28 Conclusion
104, Your Petitioner submits that the Bill fails adequately to safeguard and protect the interests of your Petitioner and should not be allowed to pass into law without these issues being addressed.
YOUR PETmONER THEREFORE HUMBLY PRAYS your Honourable House that the Bill may not be allowed to pass into law as it now stands and that it may be heard by its Counsel or Agents and witnesses in support of the allegations of this Petition against so rinuch of the Bill as affects the property, rights and interests of your Petitioner and in support of other such clauses and provisions as may be necessary or expedient for its protection, or that such other relief may be given to your Petitioner in the premises as your Honourable House shall deem meet.
AND YOUR PEHTIONER WILL EVER PRAY, &c.
Berwin Leighton Paisner LLP
29 IN PARLIAMENT
HOUSE OF COMMONS
SESSION 2013-14
HIGH SPEED RAIL (LONDON - WEST MIDLANDS) BILL
PETinON of UNIVERSITY COLLEGE LONDON
Against, the Bill — On Merits — Praying to be heard by Counsel, &c.
Berwin Leighton Paisner LLP Adelaide House London Bridge London EC4R 9HA 020 3400 1000
Pariiamentary Agents