Clause 1
Crossrail Bill
9:00 am
Tom Harris (Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Department for Transport; Glasgow South, Labour)
I am happy to clarify the matter as best I can. Clearly, in a project of this size, our priority must be to protect the interests and the environment of people who live or work at the surface of the Crossrail route. Downward deviation from the existing plans will have far less a detrimental effect on the environment than would upward deviation. As I have already said, that is well precedented; the factor was specifically written into the 1996 Act simply because of that concern. I fail to see how a downward deviation of greater than 3 m could have any greater detrimental effect or could not have a more beneficial environmental effect on people living and working on the surface at the point of Crossrail construction.