HS2 to stop at The Lee? By Colin Sully
Speaking at The Lee Parish Annual Meeting, Steve Rodrick (Chief Officer, Chiltern Conservation Board) explained that the estimated cost per minute saved on the proposed HS2 London-Birmingham train time would be £580,000,000! He suggested that everyone should be challenging this assumption about the best way of spending public money (not just those who might be directly affected by the proposed route).
Work by the Conservation Board and others had identified that not only was the environmental impact of passing through an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty not given any weight in the proposals, but that the “concocted business case” was also seriously flawed. For example he said that the proposals assumed that there would be no increase in aircraft efficiency over the next 25 years and that all time spent on trains by business travellers was wasted time (i.e. valued at their salary cost as lost time). It also assumed a significant increase in business travel and a huge increase in rail ‘leisure’ travel to/from London, even though very little of this would be traffic switching from air or road onto rail. He also concluded that HS2 would be likely to increase carbon emissions per journey, rather than to decrease it.
Resistance is not futile
Kathryn Gurney (see also next article) then spoke about how to make your views known on this issue. It was important she said not to wait until the public consultation period started (possibly not until 2011) but to make MPs and Ministers aware now that the HS2 proposals as drafted were simply unacceptable on economic as well as environmental grounds. It is your money that would be spent on this project. Is it really your priority? She suggested that actions that might be taken now include:
- · Sign the Downing Street petition (currently suspended)
- · Write to your local MP
- · Write to the Secretaries of State for Transport and the Environment
- · Tell all your friends and relatives to do the same.
“We will establish a high speed rail network as part of our programme of measures to fulfil our joint ambitions for creating a low carbon economy. Our vision is of a truly national high speed rail network for the whole of Britain. Given financial constraints, we will have to achieve this in phases.”
The strategy at this stage must be to point out to the ‘new’ government the weaknesses of the proposals drawn up under the previous administration. Whilst all parties are in favour – in principle – of a ‘high-speed rail service’, what is proposed for HS2 is clearly not the only solution; indeed there are many grounds for suggesting that it may be the least desirable of the options available for high-speed rail travel.
Kathryn also reminded us that it is said by some that if an MP receives more than 50 letters on the same subject then they will regard it as a serious issue. Let us hope that the same is also true of Government ministers!
A tiered approach
Whilst statutory bodies such as the Chilterns Conservation Board and local authorities have already started to deploy financial resources to refuting the arguments and assumptions contained in the HS2 proposals, Kathyrn thought that, in due course, it might become necessary to create a ‘fighting fund’.
Kathryn also suggested that a ‘tiered’ approach to resisting the proposals by individuals and non-statutory bodies would continue to be the best way forward. Between Amersham and Wendover, the ‘HP16 Campaign Group’ was acting as a link for local action groups and the ‘HS2 Action Alliance’ was acting as an umbrella organisation for all local groups.
If you feel you have something specific to offer to any of these groups, then in the first instance please visit The Lee Forum at www.thelee.org.uk, take a look at the notices in the Shop or contact the Parish Council.