COVENTRY MESSAGE BOARD

Campaigners and Coventry City Council have reacted with fury at reports HS2 could see a “new city” built in the Meriden Gap.



Protesters say comments by the chief engineer behind the high speed rail line are an admission Coventry would be absorbed into a “Greater Birmingham” conurbation.

The fierce defence of keeping the city distinct from its larger neighbour comes after Professor Andrew McNaughton gave the iRail 2012 Distinguished Lecture last week.

The lecture – entitled Designing High Speed Rail for Britain – described how a new station would see the area around the NEC expand into a huge new transport hub and commercial quarter.

But Councillor John Mutton, leader of Coventry City Council, said: “Coventry is a city in its own right.

“We were a city before Birmingham was even thought of. In fact Birmingham was a place where the stage coaches would stop while Coventry was a city 1,000 years ago.

“If anyone thinks Coventry will be absorbed into a Greater Birmingham conurbation and take it lying down, they had better read up on our history.

“We have our own culture and our own identity and there’s no way we’re going to lose that.

“This was exactly the reason we voted against HS2 because we thought it would take all the inward investment out of Coventry.”

Speaking in front of 100 rail industry figures at the Derby College Roundhouse, Prof McNaughton said the new HS2 rail station would be the centrepiece of a crucial interchange of railways and motorways.

Activists say Hampton-in-Arden, Balsall Common and Berkswell could be swamped by this urban sprawl in the treasured strip of green which separates Coventry and Birmingham.

Joe Rukin, StopHS2 campaign co-ordinator, said: “We’ve been saying for almost two years that if HS2 goes ahead that would mean the complete destruction of the Meriden Gap green belt.

“We have always suspected that HS2 is really a developer’s charter – especially around Birmingham Airport where the HS2 station will be coupled with an Enterprise Zone, where the government have said planning applications would be granted more or less automatically.”