黑洞社区

London mayor Boris Johnson is under pressure to intervene over the design of Crossrail after former Olympics minister Dame Tessa Jowell claimed bosses on the 拢15bn scheme are ignoring lessons from the 2012 games.

Jowell (pictured) also claimed that the scheme is 鈥渄iscriminating鈥� against its suburban stations.

Last week, 黑洞社区 revealed that Crossrail had opted not to use the services of a Crossrail design review panel, set up by Design Council Cabe, to oversee 27 redeveloped surface stations in outer London, despite using the panel on 10 other stations, mainly in central London.

Jowell has pledged to write to Johnson and raise the matter with transport secretary Patrick McLoughlin. Jowell said: 鈥淐abe鈥檚 design review panel, which of course oversaw design throughout the Olympics, was an excellent innovation which recognised that good design needn鈥檛 cost more.

鈥淲hat is disturbing about this is that it creates an outer versus inner London discrimination. It could mean that the regeneration potential of London鈥檚 outer Crossrail stations is lost to 鈥榝lat-pack鈥� design.鈥�

The mayor, who has previously spoken of the 鈥済reat importance鈥� of Crossrail design quality, faces further pressure after the boss of the organisation he established to champion suburban development, the Outer London Commission, also voiced his concern.

Will McKee, chairman of the Outer London Commission, said: 鈥淭he mayor has put ensuring outer London contributes fully to the city鈥檚 development and economic growth at the forefront of the London plan.

鈥淓nsuring good design and good public realm is an important part of that process and I would be concerned if different design standards were being applied on outer London Crossrail stations.鈥�

A Crossrail spokesperson said the design review panel had been used on the major new build stations in central and south-east London, but it was adopting a different approach on surface stations, which are redevelopments.

The spokesperson said: 鈥淲e are working closely with local councils and business and community groups to make improvements to existing stations.鈥�