Westminster Infrastructure Plan: Technical Assessment (2009) WCC

Westminster Infrastructure Plan: Technical Assessment 2006– 2026Final ReportInfrastructure Priorities17. Below the assessment is summarised under the headings „critical‟ and „significant‟. The groupingstake account of whether each infrastructure item is critical to ensuring development, and theimplications of not providing it. Works required to bring existing infrastructure up to standard, or tomeet existing deficits in provision, are considered as well as increased pressure associated withnew population and commercial growth.18. The report also lays out, where possible, when and where the infrastructure is required, who isresponsible for delivery and funding, and potential costs as identified by the provider and/or byURS. These dimensions of the analysis inform and add detail to the assessment of infrastructurepriority.Critical Priority Infrastructure Items19. The critical priority infrastructure items are those that are definitely required over the plan periodso as to enable anticipated development to take place. Without adequate provision of these itemsthere is a major risk that residential and commercial growth cannot continue beyond certainthresholds.20. The relevant infrastructure items include:Significant Infrastructure ItemsElectricity and water supply, including capacity increases and enhancements.Details on the location and extent of the enhancements required are not availabledue to the lack of thorough information on the baseline conditions of the network inWestminster.Transport improvements, covering schemes focused on congestion relief andproviding capacity increases, including improved accessibility and/or stationcongestion schemes at Paddington, Victoria, Tottenham Court Road, Maryleboneand Charing Cross underground stations, as well as rail stations capacityexpansions.Sewerage capacity increases and improvements, including new and refurbishedsewage pumping stations, particularly at: the northern end of Whitehall; TrafalgarSquare; Chippenham Road; and Westbourne Grove.Flood mitigation, including flood defence investigation and repair of the flooddefence wall at Millbank, and the Thames Tideway scheme.21. The items listed below will certainly be required if development is to take place sustainably.However, lack of these items is less likely to prevent development taking place in the short term.Provision might be successfully made at a later stage in the development process. Therequirement for some of the items is likely to arise from policy more than from other drivers, in theshort term at least.November 2009 Page 10