18 September - Cross with Crossrail? Yes, very!
48 hours after featuring
the plight of residents of Coptefield Drive and Tunstock Way who have sacrificed their fences and trees to Network Rail, the
company sent me an explanation. Overall I was not hugely impressed.
The letter confirms my assumption that removing conifers does nothing to reduce
leaf fall and explains that it became essential because of “the expanded railway
corridor” which would bring the drainage system “dangerously close to the trees
requiring the removal of some roots”. I accept that is a wholly reasonable explanation.
What
isn’t either reasonable or acceptable is that the trees and wooden fences were
taken down very nearly a year ago and the residents have been left to suffer the
consequences. The old fences were barely adequate but were a good deal better
than the wire grid which has been its replacement for the past year. Photo 1 was
taken while leaning against the back wall of one of the houses.
Network Rail will come up with all sorts of excuses based on their
interpretation of the Crossrail Act. To the west of the new station residents
(Photo 2) are entitled to a high acoustic screen at the back of their gardens some of
which I estimate to be 80 plus feet long. On the Bexley side they not only get no
screen but what little protection they had has been taken away.
The email from Network Rail refers again to the fences being flattened by high
winds and denies that their team removed them. There are many residents prepared
to swear that they did.
There
is no explanation of how it is that the fence still stands where there were no
trees or acknowledgement that the gales came after their disappearance and cannot be the cause.
The email also refers to consultations. What actually happened, I have seen some
of the correspondence, is that Network Rail notified the land owner, it’s
leasehold, and they correctly decided that they were powerless. All they could
do was notify their lessees. The Crossrail Act gives Network Rail dictatorial powers and they use them.
Not only are residents now subject to extra noise and vibration they have lost all
their privacy too. With the trees no longer there, train passengers have a clear
view into houses. The picture below was taken through the rain spattered
window of a Belvedere to Abbey Wood train last Friday. The ramps to Bostall
Manorway and Church Manorway footbridges have
remained closed for a year or more
(Photo 4) because one family complained that it allowed views into their bedrooms.
Because east of Abbey Wood is not strictly speaking Crossrail residents there
get no consideration. But I suppose that things are just a little better than at
Chantry Close (Photos 3) where railway workers can very nearly press their noses against residents’ windows.
Coptefield Drive. The view from the train.
If you think that BiB is showing signs of no longer being a big fan of the Crossrail construction
project you could be right. The past week has changed everything.
It has become much more difficult to take pictures of the Crossrail site. The
station building which I increasingly think may be ugly and totally out of
keeping with its southern approaches can only be photographed while dicing with
death on the flyover. High level pictures of the construction of the Crossrail
platform is now restricted by the footbridge rearrangements. All of which was
both predictable and inevitable. No problem with that.
But now access has been further restricted. It used to be the case that if one
asked nicely you could persuade one of the Southeastern staff to be an escort
and so get a sneeky picture from the bridge during a line closure. However Network
Rail has decreed that can no longer happen and even SE staff are now forbidden
from climbing the steps.
So today’s release of Crossrail photos
will probably not be the last but I have lost interest in recording progress
daily. The last straw was a Network Rail employee jabbing his finger in my face
while threatening to sue me for my photographic activities. I understood his message but the
aggression was totally unnecessary.
The residents of Coptefield Drive, Abbey Terrace, Mottesfont Road and all the
other places that have been blighted by Crossrail would probably think it was entirely typical
Network Rail behaviour.
For the record, there has been no visible sign of any activity in the vicinity
of Abbey Wood station this weekend to justify the massive inconvenience of a bus
replacement service, or to be more accurate a coach replacement service without disabled access.