County council blasts HS2 report...

[dutchman]

Warwickshire County Council has issued a damning response to HS2’s draft Environmental Statement consultation.



In a report approved by cabinet on Thursday, Shire Hall said the report by HS2 Ltd was “deficient in a number of key areas”.

The draft Environmental Statement for the proposed 220mph high speed rail line between London and the north contains 5,000 pages, including 26 local area reports and over 500 pages of detail for Warwickshire.

But the council claims there is a lack of data on traffic generation, errors in construction traffic predictions, poor ecological surveys, and the absence of a health impact assessment – which the authority said was considered best practice for developments of this scale.

Coun Bob Stevens, the council’s cabinet member for HS2, said: “It is clear that this has been rushed through and little care has been paid to the real impact on local communities.

“We have asked that HS2 Ltd addresses the clear deficiencies and errors in its report and drastically improves its documentation for the full Environmental Statement before the hybrid bill is introduced to Parliament later this year.

“In spite of the very poor – and in part deficient – quality of the reports being produced by HS2 Ltd, I have been impressed with the quality and calibre of the parishes and community group responses.

“It is obvious to me that if HS2 does not take proper account of local concerns, their vision and the promised benefits for this project are doomed to fail.”

Coun Stevens added that people living along the proposed route could suffer “consultation fatigue.”

The warning comes after consultation for the ‘Y-route’ north to Leeds, which is planned to go through parts of North Warwickshire, including Kingsbury Water Park, was launched this week by HS2 Ltd.

Responding to the critics, a spokesman for HS2 said:“We have just carried out an extensive public consultation about how we can minimise the environmental impact of HS2.

“This included 26 community events along the 140 mile route, where people had an opportunity to come along and discuss the proposals with HS2 Ltd’s environmental and engineering teams.

“There have been over 15,000 responses to the consultation, including one from Warwickshire City Council.

“We are now assessing those responses and they will help to inform a much more detailed Environmental Statement.

“This will then be submitted to Parliament, alongside legislation giving the necessary powers to build HS2, later this year.”

Last month Coventry City Council scrapped its opposition to HS2, saying the decision gave the city a better chance of getting the best possible outcome for services in and out of Coventry station – and links to HS2.

[dutchman]

[rebbonk]

That cartoon says it all to me. At the end of the day, the tax payer is going to be left with a massive bill for a project that has run horrendously over budget.

If we must go ahead with this white elephant, then any budget over-runs ought be picked up by the managing companies involved. - If this was the case, I wonder if they'd be so interested in going ahead?

[dutchman]

Not only the taxpayer Rebbonk, but also the ordinary rail commuter who either cannot afford or has no use for HS2. He will pay in the form of higher fares and reduced services.

[dutchman]

Labour say they will scrap HS2 if it costs more than £50 billion

Labour has placed a £50 billion cap on the cost of the High Speed 2 rail line and threatened to block the project if the bill spirals out of control.

Maria Eagle, the shadow transport secretary, said her party’s support for the scheme was conditional on keeping costs in check.

Her comments came as the head of HS2 warned that the railway project would not be viable without cross-party support.

Ms Eagle’s intervention represents the latest refinement of Labour’s position on the multi-billion project which was conceived under the previous Government.

Senior Labour figures including Lord Mandelson and Alistair Darling, the former chancellor, have attacked the rising cost of the plans.

Ed Miliband’s aides insist that Labour supports a new rail route linking London with the North but last week Ed Balls, the shadow chancellor warned he would not write a “blank cheque” for HS2.

Ms Eagle told the Sunday Times: “I am not willing to see this project start draining money from other vital rail projects – it’s got to be delivered within the current budget.

“Nobody who is delivering it should be under any illusions that I will allow it to go up and up. that would put our commitment to it at risk.

“It shouldn’t be going up above that £50 billion cap.”

HS2 will link the capital with northern cities and is intended to reduce travel times, for example cutting the journey from Manchester to London from 2 hr 8 mins to one 1 hr 8 mins. Trains are expected to be able to travel at speeds of up to 225mph by about 2026.

Ministers have estimated that the cost, including rolling stock, will be £50 million. However, other research has warned that the final bill for the project could reach £80 billion, while Treasury officials are said to be working on a figure of £73 billion.

Alison Munro, chief executive of the company delivering the project, acknowledged that HS2 would not be viable unless there was political consensus about the benefits it would bring to Britain.

Lord Adonis, transport secretary in Gordon Brown's government, warned Labour must not abandon its support for the project. Writing in the New Statesman, he said such a move would be an "act of national self-mutilation".

[rebbonk]

[rebbonk]