1345 GMT
Wednesday
20 January 2010
Editor © Muhammad Haque
The ‘EVENING STANDARD’ published in April 2009 the comment by SIMON JENKINS, one of that paper’s former Editors, with the heading “Crossrail will eat money. Kill it, Boris and save the bankrupt Tube instead”.
That headline summed up pretty much the most basic arguments against CRASSrail. However the EVENING STANDARD has failed to tell the truth about the wasteful CRASSrail even with that sort of admission by at least one of their own columnists.
What is interesting about the Simon Jenkins piece – which we have referred to more than anyone else – is the fact that it actually describes Boris Johnson in graphic terms when he is confronted with the dilemma of CrossRail. That factual evidential graphic description has not been denied since publication ten months ago. And that fact is very significant. It shows that the peddlers of the CRASSrail have no case. And the liability and the debts-causing nature of the scam is admitted in a half-hearted way by the EVENING STANDARD’s by-lined writer of the piece about the Old Estonians’ ‘row’ around Mayfair…
CRASSrail Crassroles are getting crasser by the day!
[To be continued]
Today’s ‘news’ item [ texts reproduced below] about CRASSrail in Mayfair London has been taken from the web site of the London EVENING STANDARD at 1344 GMT Wednesday 20 January 2010
Upset: Toby Courtauld, right, says the land bought in Hanover Square for £35.9 million is worth £60 million, showing the problems which projects such as Crossrail, a favourite of Boris Johnson, can face
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One of London's biggest landlords was plunged into a row with Boris Johnson today over the development of a Crossrail station in the heart of Mayfair.
Great Portland Estates insisted the £35.9 million Transport for London paid for 18 and 19 Hanover Square via a compulsory purchase order was far too low.
The battle pitches the Mayor against fellow old Etonian Toby Courtauld, the chief executive of Great Portland and a member of the Courtaulds textile empire.
Mr Courtauld - known in the property industry as “very young, very upper crust, and a very nice bloke” - claimed the site was worth nearer £60 million.
He said Great Portland “significantly disagrees” with the £35.9 million price tag TfL set for the site, an important part of the proposed Bond Street Crossrail station.
“We need to make sure that the shareholders get the right figure. We are vigorously pursuing Transport for London and we expect further payments.”
Mr Courtauld, 41, is four years the Mayor's junior and went to Cambridge, unlike Mr Johnson who went to Oxford. He threatened to take the matter to the Land Tribunal - an independent and specialist judicial body founded to resolve certain disputes concerning land.
TfL bought 18 and 19 Hanover Square from Great Portland last month via a compulsory purchase order under the Crossrail Act 2008. A Crossrail spokeswoman said: “We paid Great Portland 100 per cent of our valuation for the property. Since then we have started negotiations on the difference between our valuations.”
Great Portland and Crossrail are jointly working on a masterplan for the entire western section of Hanover Square.
But the row over the price of 18 and 19 Hanover Square highlights the difficulties of building major new infrastructure projects in heavily built-up areas. It also rekindled fears that the £16 billion East-West rail link might overshoot its budget.
The project is seen as vital to the future of London as a major business hub but has long-been embroiled in rows over funding, particularly given ballooning levels of debt in the U
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