HOUSE OF COMMONS

SESSION 2005-06

CROSSRAIL

P E T I T I O N

Against the Bill - Praying to be heard by counsel, &c.

TO THE HONOURABLE THE COMMONS OF THE UNITED KINGDOM OF GREAT

BRITAIN AND NORTHERN IRELAND IN PARLIAMENT ASSEMBLED.

THE HUMBLE PETITION OF the BRITISH BOARD OF

FILM CLASSIFICATION

SHEWETH as follows :-

1. A Bill (hereinafter called "the Bill") has been introduced into and is now

pending in your Honourable House intituled "A Bill to make provision for a

railway transport system running from Maidenhead, in the County of

Berkshire, and Heathrow Airport, in the London Borough of Hillingdon,

through central London to Shenfield, in the County of Essex, and Abbey

Wood, in the London Borough of Greenwich; and for connected

purposes".

2. Clauses 1 to 20 set out the Bill's objectives in relation to the construction

and operation of the railway transport system mentioned in paragraph 1above. They include provision for compulsory acquisition, planning

permission, heritage issues, trees and noise. Clauses 21 to 44 of the Billestablish a regulatory regime for the railway transport system and clauses

45 to 59 of the Bill deal with miscellaneous and general provisions.

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3. The works proposed to be authorised by the Bill are specified in Schedule

1 to the Bill and the scheduled works are defined in the Bill as the worksspecified in Schedule 1 to the Bill which are works authorised to beconstructed by the nominated undertaker (defined in the Bill andhereinafter referred to as "the nominated undertaker").

4. Your petitioners are the leaseholders of the plot numbered 615 in the Cityof Westminster as shown on the deposited plans, known as 3 SohoSquare and 7 Dean Street. Your petitioners have occupied this land forover sixty years, and the lease is due to lapse in 2128. The Bill wouldauthorise the compulsory acquisition of the subsoil of their land in whichyour petitioners have an interest as lessees, to which your petitionersobject. Furthermore, your petitioners' interests will be injuriously affectedby the proposals in the Bill and they object to the proposals in the Billinsofar as it affects your petitioners' interests, for the reasons, amongstothers, hereinafter appearing.

Introductory

5. Your petitioners are the British Board of Film Classification, anindependent, non-governmental body funded through the fees it chargesto those who submit films, videos, DVDs and digital games forclassification. Your petitioners classify cinema films on behalf of localauthorities who license cinemas under the Licensing Act 2003, andclassify videos, DVDs and some digital games under the terms of theVideo Recordings Act 1984. Under the Video Recordings Act 1984, yourpetitioners are also required to maintain a record of determinations madein respect of video works, including an archive of all classified videoworks. Currently, your petitioners employ a staff of about 60, and classify

over 15,000 cinema films, DVDs and digital games per annum. Theyhave to work to tight deadlines in order to turn around classifications fordistributors. Your petitioners also classify a significant amount of foreignlanguage material, such as for the emerging Bollywood film industries.

6. The building which your petitioners occupy is listed under Grade II as astructure of architectural merit in a Conservation Area. It has beenconsiderably extended and specially adapted for their purposes, includingthe provision of soundproofing on most floors. This comprises mainly

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carpeting, absorbent ceiling tiles, and additional plasterboard on the sidesof rooms. The external windows are single-glazed, however, and undercurrent planning legislation there is limited scope for the alteration ofexisting windows or the installation of full air conditioning or securing afully filtered air flow system.

7. The building also contains a cinema in the basement, and roomsthroughout the other floors of the building, all containing video and DVDviewing equipment to enable your petitioners to carry out their statutoryand other duties.

8. Your petitioners have grave concerns not only for the structure of theirbuilding, but also because they anticipate that their business will beseverely disrupted during the works.

The proposed works

9. As your petitioners understand it, a concourse and passenger subway forthe western ticket hall of Tottenham Court Road Station is to beconstructed directly beneath their property. Your petitioners areconcerned to note that, in previous plans, the promoters anticipated thatthe escalators and lift shafts were to be situated in what is now theFareham Street worksite, but it is now planned for them to be constructedimmediately below your petitioners' building. Your petitioners requestfurther information from the promoters as to why this change has beenmade, as it does not appear to be justifiable to your petitioners in terms ofthe operation of the western ticket hall at concourse level.

10. Your petitioners also note that the twin-bore and platform tunnels are dueto pass both to the north and the south of your petitioners' property, butthe deposited plans would allow a considerable amount of lateraldeviation at this point. Your petitioners submit, in the event that thepromoters wish to deviate from the levels and limitations established inthe plans accompanying the bill, that the promoters should be required todeviate only laterally and downwards in the construction of the concourseand subways, so as to minimise any impact upon your petitioners'property and disruption to your petitioners' work. At the very least, yourpetitioners submit that the promoters should be required to fix the line

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and level of the concourse and subways, and should not be permitted todeviate at this point so that your petitioners have certainty in the effectthe works will have on their building and their business. In addition, your

petitioners request that the centre line of the running tunnels should befixed so that the tunnels do not come any closer laterally to their property

than a position to be agreed with your petitioners.

11. Your petitioners have concerns about the works preparatory to, duringthe course of, and following completion of, the demolition andconstruction works.

Preparatory works

12. Your petitioners note that there is to be a worksite and a lorry holdingarea at Newman Street to serve the Fareham Street site. In order topermit full access from Newman Street to the Fareham Street site forlarge or wide vehicles via Great Chapel Street and Dean Street, it is likelythat some preparatory demolition work will be required as well as theearly diversion of the existing traffic flow patterns in the Dean Street andSoho Square area prior to the commencement of the works. Yourpetitioners receive on average over 300 deliveries per week to their SohoSquare reception entrance and it is essential that there is no interruptionof deliveries at any time during the periods when preparatory work isbeing carried out.

13. Your petitioners are particularly concerned about the impact of anypreparatory work to be carried out by the nominated undertaker prior tothe works commencing at the Tottenham Court Road Station sites. Theyseek assurances that no such preparatory work will be undertaken belowor near their building without fully consulting your petitioners, andassessing and mitigating the impact of such preparatory work upon yourpetitioners' activities.

14. During the preparatory period, it is also likely that there will be intermittentnoise and airborne dust created that will be detrimental to yourpetitioners' work. Your petitioners respectfully request that provisionshould be made in the Bill to impose an obligation upon the nominatedundertaker to safeguard, at their own expense, your petitioners' building

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and the equipment within it prior to any works commencing, and toimpose the same restrictions and working methods during this period aswill apply during the construction period. Such work should includesealing the exterior of the premises from dust and noise penetration andprovision of suitable parking bays for delivery vehicles.

Demolition works

15. The entire block of property between Oxford Street, Great Chapel Street,Dean Street and Diadem Court numbered 568 to 593 in the planssubmitted with the Bill is to be demolished, including buildingsincorporating lime mortar and plaster, as well as other abrasive dust-generating materials. Part of this worksite is across the street diagonallyopposite your petitioners' premises. It is essential to the work of yourpetitioners that all dust and noise screening works are in place prior tothe commencement of works. Noise, both on a permanent or intermittentbasis, will have a very severe impact on the work of your petitioners.Traditional on-site screening and damping down of walls, or dust once ithas settled, will not be adequate to protect the statutory archive or thesensitive equipment located throughout your petitioners' building. Manyof the existing windows of 3 Soho Square and 7 Dean Street cannot bealtered to provide satisfactory protection from dust or noise penetration.

16. Your petitioners' building will be affected to varying degrees by dust fromthe worksites for both the western and eastern ticket halls at TottenhamCourt Road, depending upon the direction of the wind. Your petitionersrespectfully request that the promoters should be required to undertakeall necessary works of secondary glazing to their windows to yourpetitioners' specifications and satisfaction.

Construction works

17. The magnitude and extent of construction work to be carried out near orbeneath your petitioners' property includes the construction of theeastbound and westbound rail and platform tunnels, the construction ofthe western and eastern ticket halls of Tottenham Court Road Station,with all escalator, lift, and pedestrian link tunnels to platform level, theexcavation of the Fareham Street and Dean Street shafts for excavation

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and construction access, the severance and diversion of drainage andutility services under Dean Street, the removal and replacement of thepresent Tottenham Court Road transformer station, and the excavation offour grout shafts at unspecified locations in Soho Square in preparation

for remedial pumping of concrete into any voids created by anticipatedland settlement, together with the storage of grouting equipment andmaterials for use as required. Of particular concern to your petitionersare the problems of damage arising from the structural impact of theproject, noise, dust and dirt, vibration, interruption of power supplies tothe premises, traffic, grout pumping, hours of working, electromagneticinterference, contamination and pollution, storage of materials in SohoSquare and damage to its existing rain soak-away drainage system,disruption to the vehicular and pedestrian access to their property andvisual impact. Your petitioners submit that the nominated undertaker

should be made subject to suitable specific standards in respect of eachof these matters, with adequate advanced notification and consultationtaking place with your petitioners, and that there should be policies fornoise and dust insulation and for compensation to be paid where thesestandards and policies are breached or other suitable mitigation orremedy put in place.

18. Your petitioners are also concerned to ensure that the nominatedundertaker is required to adopt the very highest standards in respect ofmitigation of the effects of noise, dust, vibration, and nauseous gasescaused both during the construction period, and afterwards during therunning of the Crossrail trains. The nominated undertaker should berequired to carry out noise and dust sensitivity property surveys inadvance of any demolition and construction works and notify yourpetitioners and seek their agreement to any proposed changes to uniformhours of working.

Structural impact of construction of Crossrail

19. According to the plans submitted with the Bill, the structures constructedunderneath your petitioners' property will be a subway carrying stairsand/or escalators from the western ticket hall of Tottenham Court RoadStation down to a concourse which will provide access to the west-boundand east-bound Crossrail platforms. Your petitioners are extremely

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concerned about the effects of this construction activity on the structureof their building. The subway and concourse are to be constructed sothat they will enter your petitioners' land on a diagonal angle from threedirections, which the promoters' technical report on settlement itselfpredicts will result in unequal settlement throughout the building. Themethod of construction required and consequent remedial grouting couldpotentially cause damage to the fabric of the structure of your petitioners'building.

20. Your petitioners submit that surveys to record the structural condition ofthe building should be undertaken immediately prior to thecommencement of the works, and surveys to assess structural damageshould be undertaken regularly thereafter during the construction of theworks, and for a period afterwards. Should the building suffer structuraldamage or show signs of distress, the promoters should be obliged tomake safe and repair at their own expense any such damageimmediately. Your petitioners ask for an undertaking that a programmeof regular surveys will be put into place and preventative or remedialaction taken including appropriate measures to protect staff andmembers of the public from the risk of falling debris.

21. Your petitioners note that the Bill seeks to limit your petitioners' rights tomake a claim for compensation for any damage to the building by theoperation of the railway by providing that the period within which a claimmay be made is two years from the date of the railway's opening forpublic traffic. In your petitioners' respectful submission, the period shouldbe two years from any date upon which damage becomes apparent.Your petitioners also submit that compensation provisions in the Bill areinadequate and submit further that their very special circumstances meritextra rights to claim compensation for any losses they may incur as aresult of the works proposed or any injurious affection suffered to thepremises or business as a result of the works proposed under the Bill.

22. The promoters' consulting engineers have predicted that proposedexcavation and tunnelling is likely to have an adverse settlement impactwhich may cause material damage to your petitioners' building. In yourpetitioners' respectful submission, the nominated undertaker should berequired to provide, in advance of commencement of tunnelling, a more

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detailed assessment of the expected impact on their building. Thisinformation should be supplied to your petitioners at the earliestopportunity, and should be accompanied by a statement of the method bywhich the impact is to be monitored before, during and after construction.Furthermore, the nominated undertaker should be required to carry outappropriate safeguarding works including full condition surveys andmonitoring, and the proposals for these works should be submitted toyour petitioners, and implemented in an agreed form.

Noise, dust and vibration

23. Your petitioners are very concerned about noise, dust and vibrationarising from the preparatory, demolition, and construction works andoperation of the railway, and request that the promoters should doeverything possible to reduce the levels, and the duration, of suchimpacts upon their building. Due to the unique nature of the workundertaken by your petitioners, it is of particular concern that intermittentnoise is likely to have a disproportionate impact, even at low levels. It isextremely important that your petitioners should not have theirconcentration disturbed, as they must be able to hear with clarity thesoundtrack of any film or video recording to detect even subliminal orbackground sound. In certain instances, your petitioners must replaysections of a work several times in order properly to hear the wordsspoken. Intermittent noise or vibration due to demolition or constructionworks would substantially lengthen this process if preventive measureswere not taken in advance. Any errors in the classification of films,videos or DVDs resulting from noise disruption could potentially haveserious consequences for your petitioners, the film distributors, theindustry as a whole, and the viewing public. It is essential that thenominated undertaker and their subcontractors are required to adhere tolevels of noise and vibration which are acceptable to, and agreed with,your petitioners.

24. The impact of the works, particularly in relation to noise and dust, will befelt by your petitioners, especially due to the position of the basementcinema, which extends some two metres below ground level. Theequipment in the cinema is very sensitive to damage from dust particlesor disturbance by vibration and it is not readily replaceable. It would

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certainly be vulnerable to the impact of noise, dust, and disturbancearising from the demolition of buildings, or tunnelling under yourpetitioners' building. The projectors in the cinema are handmade, andare operated by 1600-watt bulbs, which, if they were to be knocked in any

way due to vibration, could explode, causing damage to the projectormirrors. Replacement of the mirrors could take days, depending on theiravailability. The projectors would also be in danger of overheating due tointake of dust, and would have to be constantly cleaned.

25. Similarly, your petitioners use a wide range of audiovisual equipment,including video and DVD machines in their work. Some of the videoequipment is already obsolete or becoming so, but is likely to be neededby your petitioners in the short to medium term because of the largequantity of material still held as a statutory requirement in the archive onoutdated or soon to be outdated video formats. The equipment neededto play such works is extremely sensitive to vibration, and to dust and dirt,and cannot be replaced. Damage to the equipment may lead to delays inprocessing works under the 1984 Act and may also negatively affect theaccurate provision of information to Trading Standards officers in criminalprosecutions. Any additional costs may need to be borne in part by thefilm and video industry as a whole through increased fees. Moving theequipment to other premises is not a viable option because it needs to bein one place where recordings can be easily accessed, including callingthem back from the archive. Furthermore, removing recordings from thepremises raises issues in terms of security both for your petitioners andfor the film and video industry, whose copyright material has beenentrusted to your petitioners.

26. Your petitioners use their basement cinema and viewing rooms for theperformance of their statutory and other duties every day. Yourpetitioners' duties are best performed if their examiners can operate in asnormal a setting as possible, which includes natural light from externalwindows, rather than fully enclosed artificially lit internal booths. Theyalso have to listen to films as they would be heard in a cinema, andcannot make use of headphones as an alternative in the event of noisedisruption. Your petitioners anticipate that disruption, abrasive dust, andnoise will be experienced in the basement of, and throughout their

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building, and that it will have a grave effect on the performance of their

duties. In turn, this may mean that your petitioners' cinema and viewing

facilities would become unusable. In order to mitigate the noise and

disruption to your petitioners, they would request that the nominated

undertaker should provide, at its own expense, sound and dust insulation

throughout the building, to include dust sealed secondary glazing, to your

petitioners' satisfaction.

27. Some of the films which your petitioners have to view can sometimescontain very graphic and disturbing scenes, and your petitioners have aresponsibility to their staff to provide facilities for them to have short

breaks away from their work. At the top of their building, your petitioners

have an open-air break-out area, which overlooks Dean Street and the

Fareham Street worksite. This will become unusable once the demolition

works begin and heavy traffic uses the road for access to the site. Your

petitioners will have to find alternative means of providing support to their

staff, which might not be as effective as the means they already use.

28. In the long term, your petitioners must be assured that they will not suffer

any noise or disruption when the concourse and subway are in operation,

and Crossrail trains are running through the station and tunnels, and thatnoise and vibration do not travel into their building. In your petitioners'

submission, the nominated undertaker should be subjected to stringent

design standards, and should be required in particular to use a floating

continuously welded track for the railway underneath your petitioners'building to minimise any noise from the running of the railway. This

requirement should also apply to the temporary track used for the

transport of material during the construction period. The nominated

undertaker should be required to install additional procedures and design

methods to inhibit the transmission of noise and vibration into your

petitioners' building as appropriate and with the agreement of yourpetitioners. In your petitioners' submission, the Bill should also providethat the nominated undertaker should put in place a comprehensive

consultation, noise monitoring and mitigation scheme and be subjected to

a compensation code where agreed noise and vibration standards arebreached. Operational monitoring should again include reference to

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intermittent noise due to its disproportionate impact upon your petitioners'

work.

29. Your petitioners have already mentioned above that the promoters shouldbe required to use the best possible methods and equipment to minimisenoise and vibration during operation of the railway. Your petitioners arealso concerned to ensure that high standards are met in terms of thelifespan and maintenance of the new tracks. Appropriate standardsshould be incorporated in the contracts between the Secretary of Stateand the nominated undertaker to ensure that the nominated undertakermeets those standards.

30. Your petitioners are concerned that there is no mention in theEnvironmental Statement of whether there will be any tannoy system atthe new station, nor is there any assessment in the EnvironmentalStatement of the potential noise impact of any such tannoy system. Theyrequest that such an assessment is carried out prior to thecommencement of the works due to the disproportionate impact,particularly of intermittent sound upon their operation, as previouslydescribed.

Breach in power supplies

31. Your petitioners are concerned that there should be no breach in thesupply of power or other utilities to your petitioners' building, as this couldlead to damage to their equipment, particularly the projectors in thecinema. They request that the promoters should provide details of theirarrangements to mitigate against any cuts in supply of power or otherutilities to your petitioners.

Construction Traffic

32. It is clear that the sites at Soho Square, and those main construction sitesclose to your petitioners' building, will be centres to and from which largequantities of construction materials, spoil, equipment and staff will betransported. Your petitioners are concerned the routeing of lorries andother vehicles, access to work sites, hours of operation, number ofvehicle movements and size of vehicles and related matters should beplanned so as to ensure that as much traffic and other disruption takes

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place as far away as possible from your petitioners' building. Your

petitioners submit that the nominated undertaker should be required tominimise the cumulative impact of lorry movements by properly managinglorry movements, avoiding "stacking" of lorries queuing close to theworksites, keeping the number of movements to a minimum, andconfining movements to specified worksite hours as agreed between thepromoters and your petitioners.

Grouting pumping

33. Your petitioners are concerned about the proposals for pumping grout tocompensate for any consequent settlement of land or buildings. Theynote that it is proposed in the Environmental Statement whichaccompanies the Bill that there will be sites for grout pumping at the fourcorners of Soho Square. Your petitioners are concerned that, contrary tothe position anticipated in the Environmental Statement, the drains andservices within the north-west corner of Soho Square are situated suchthat there may only be one place where the grout pumping shaftmaterials can be placed, which will have a serious impact upon theirpremises. Your petitioners are also concerned that there is insufficientdetail contained in the plans relating to the grout pumping, and to thestorage of materials for the grout pumping, including the provision ofsecurity for the sites in Soho Square. There is, for instance, little or noinformation provided on when such grout pumping will be necessary, howthe nominated undertaker will go about assessing whether such pumpingwill be necessary, how soon after the commencement of the works it isanticipated pumping might be required, what type, quantity and length oftime materials are to be stored in Soho Square, and how the nominatedundertaker will go about such grout pumping. Your petitioners areparticularly concerned that, once grout pumping has commenced, itwould have to continue until the nominated undertaker is satisfied thatany settlement to the building had been corrected. This could result incontinuous noise and disruption for long periods of time, far in excess ofthe hours of work proposed by the promoters. Your petitioners urgentlyrequest that further details relating to the proposed grouting operationsshould be provided to your petitioners for consultation, together with adetailed survey to determine the most suitable shaft locations. Prior to

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the commencement of any operations, the final proposals for these works

should be submitted to your petitioners, and only implemented when inan agreed form.

Hours of work

34. Your petitioners note that the promoters propose to work between thehours of 7.00am and 7.00pm Monday to Friday, and 7.00am to 2.00pmon Saturday. Your petitioners note that these hours are longer thanthose which have been adopted in other construction operations on thisscale, such as the Channel Tunnel Rail Line scheme. Your petitionerstherefore submit that the Bill before your Honourable House shouldrequire the nominated undertaker to work only according to those hoursmutually agreed with your petitioners, so as to minimise theinconvenience and disruption caused to your petitioners during thecourse of the works. Should occasional additional working time benecessary outside the mutually agreed hours, your petitioners requestthat such hours should be agreed in advance with your petitioners, andthe nominated undertaker should make arrangements with yourpetitioners to mitigate the impact of any such activities.

35. Your petitioners also note that the promoters are arranging for deliveriesof material to be made to the worksites outside their suggested periods ofwork, which could result in deliveries being made to worksites up to10.00pm on weekdays. This may impact upon your petitioners' workinghours, and they therefore request that the delivery times should be limitedto the agreed working hours mentioned above. Should it be necessaryfor deliveries to take place outside the agreed hours of work, yourpetitioners request that all such deliveries should be agreed in advancewith your petitioners, so that the nominated undertaker can makearrangements with your petitioners to mitigate the impact of any suchdeliveries.

Electromagnetic Interference

36. Your petitioners are concerned that their statutory archive of videorecordings will be damaged by electromagnetic interference once therailway with its ancillary equipment is completed and running. This may

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result in the deterioration of your petitioners' archive library, which will

render the enforcement provisions of the Video Recordings Act 1984incapable of performance. At present, your petitioners store some22,000 video recordings in their basement which cannot be stored

elsewhere in the building because their weight, together with that of themobile racking storage system, exceeds the structural load bearingcapacity of the upper floors. In order to protect this irreplaceable libraryof video recordings, your petitioners submit that maximum permittedlevels for electromagnetic radiation must be stipulated in the Bill.

37. Your petitioners submit that the possibility of moving the escalators andother machinery away from their building should be considered, so as toavoid the possibility of such electromagnetic interference with yourpetitioners' archive. If it is not possible for the line of the escalators andother machinery to be changed, your petitioners respectfully submit that

the promoters should be required to take all possible measures to thesatisfaction of your petitioners to protect the stored video recordings.With sensitive materials of this nature, preventative steps must be takenbefore any damage occurs rather than afterwards, as the recordings areunique and irreplaceable. Financial compensation would be norecompense for the loss of the actual recording of the video work inrespect of which the classification certificate has been issued. Yourpetitioners ask that an expert in electromagnetic interference should beappointed with the agreement of your petitioners by the promoters and atthe promoters' expense, to assess the risk of electromagneticinterference, and that surveys should be carried out not only to assessstructural effects on the building, but also to establish whether yourpetitioners' archives will indeed be affected by the construction or runningof the railway with its ancillary electrical machinery.

Contaminated and Polluted Land

38. The promoters state in the Environmental Statement that ground-breaking work being carried out for the construction of the railway couldresult in a high risk of significant pollution at the Tottenham Court Roadstation site. Your petitioners request the nominated undertaker to carryout, at their own expense, full and careful monitoring of both the easternand western ticket hall sites prior to, during, and after completion of the

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construction and grouting works to ensure that no contamination occurs.They note also that works are to be carried out on the sewers in DeanStreet and Oxford Street, including cutting sewers in half to form twoseparate sections of sewer, and altering the flow of sewers. Your

petitioners request that the nominated undertaker should take allappropriate measures to avoid any pollution or contamination of yourpetitioners' property, or disruption caused by the release of nauseousgases arising from these works.

Storage of materials in Soho Square

39. Your petitioners are concerned about the plans to store groutingmaterials at sites within Soho Square, particularly in relation to itspotential impact upon the rain soak-away system in the Square. If suchmaterials enter the soak-away system, they could block it, leading to theflooding of Soho Square, and in turn to the flooding of your petitioners'building, causing a great deal of damage to the basement cinema and thelibrary of video recordings stored in the basement.

40. Your petitioners therefore request that the promoters provide furtherinformation as to how they propose to ensure that no dust or otherpollution occurs from the storage of such material, and that no dust fromthe works, or buildings around Soho Square, or from the groutingmaterials stored in the Square, enters the rain soak-away system. Theyalso request details of how the promoters intend to provide mitigationpolicies against the flooding of your petitioners' building.

Access to building

41. Your petitioners are concerned at the prospect of disruption to thevehicular and pedestrian access to their building. The Bill would enablethe nominated undertaker to close or restrict temporarily for long periodsroads which provide access to your petitioners' building from SohoSquare and Dean Street. In 2005, your petitioners have received to datean average of 300 video submissions per week delivered to their building,an average increase of over 30%, together with a further 96 reels of filmand digital media submissions. They have also had a major increase inthe number of digital media submissions this year. Many boxes of

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recordings weigh up to 50 kilograms each, and there would beunacceptable health and safety issues raised if they have to be carriedany distance by hand. Your petitioners request that the promoters berequired to ensure that pedestrian and vehicular access around theproposed worksites, and grouting sites in Soho Square, should bemaintained at all times during the works, and, should this becomedifficult, your petitioners request that the promoters should provideadequate alternative means of allowing access to their property.

Visual impact of grouting and Fareham Street works

42. Your petitioners submit that the entire Fareham Street worksite, and thesites in Soho Square where shafts are to be required for compensationgrouting, together with any sites where materials are to be stored, shouldbe screened to reduce the visual impact of the sites upon yourpetitioners, as well as to help reduce the impact of noise and dust fromthe worksites. Your petitioners request that they should be consultedupon the design and structure of the planned screens for all worksites, soas to ensure as far as possible that the screens are as effective aspossible and do not impact upon their building.

Provision of information

43. Your petitioners have serious concerns over the provision of informationby the promoters, both prior to the deposit of the Bill and up to the date ofthe deposit of this petition. This has meant that thorough and detailedassessments of the proposed project and its impacts and benefits havebeen impossible to compile. Your petitioners are concerned thatrequests for further information and responses to specific requestsremain outstanding. In particular, your petitioners are still to be satisfiedabout the adequacy of the Environmental Statement and its Supplement,particularly in relation to the compensation grouting which is due to takeplace to deal with any settlement at Tottenham Court Road station.Baseline assumptions made over a number of generic issues have still tobe substantiated; for example, your petitioners consider that anunrealistic reduction in traffic levels has been assumed to generate thepredicted levels for noise and pollution. Ancillary documentation remains

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in an incomplete form which is neither acceptable in principle, nor in itspresumptions, proposals and extent of detail.

General

44. There are other clauses and provisions in the Bill which, if passed intolaw as they now stand, will prejudicially affect the rights and interest of

your petitioners and other clauses and provisions necessary for theirprotection and benefit are omitted therefrom.

YOUR PETITIONERS THEREFORE

HUMBLY PRAY

your Honourable House that theBill may not pass into law as itnow stands and that they beheard by themselves, theircounsel, agents and witnesses insupport of the allegations of thispetition, against so much of theBill as affects the property,rights, and interests of yourpetitioners and in support of suchother clauses and amendmentsas may be necessary and properfor their protection and benefit.

AND YOUR PETITIONERS will ever pray,

&c.

SHARPE PRITCHARD

Agents for the British Board ofFilm Classification

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HOUSE OF COMMONS

SESSION 2005-06

CROSSRAIL

P E T I T I O N

of the

British Board of Film Classification

AGAINST,

BY COUNSEL, &c.

SHARPE PRITCHARD

Elizabeth HouseFulwood Place

London WC1V6HG

Parliamentary Agents