Primrose Hill HS2 Reference Group – It’s not end of line for HS2 campaign
Transport Minister insists rail proposals are ‘not a done deal’ but affected residents fight on
Published: 28 October, 2010
by JOSIE HINTON
CAMPAIGNERS were told plans for a high-speed rail tunnel through Primrose Hill are “not a done deal” during a meeting at the House of Commons on Monday.
Minister of State for Transport Theresa Villiers, speaking to residents living along the government’s proposed £30billion HS2 route, including five members of the Primrose Hill HS2 Reference Group, gave the assurance in response to widespread concern that their arguments have fallen on deaf ears.
“This is not a done deal,” Ms Villiers said. “The consultation will cover both the principle of high-speed rail and the route options. Input from local communities is already making a difference through changes to the preferred route of High Speed Two (HS2). People in this room can make a real difference to the outcome.”
Ms Villiers was one of a number of speakers in the Attlee Suite at the meeting organised by Andrea Leadsom MP and chaired by Sir Paul Hayter, chairman of the Campaign for the Protection of Rural England.
Belsize councillor Jonny Bucknell, who challenged Ms Villiers to provide proof of the demand for a new rail network, said current trains passing through Primrose Hill to Euston “often don’t look extremely full”.
The minister told him the West Coast Mainline – which runs from Euston to Glasgow – was facing a “timebomb” with trains expected to be at maximum capacity within seven years.
But the government’s figures were challenged by a number of speakers. Chris Stokes, former director of the Strategic Rail Authority, branded government forecasts that demand for rail travel would grow by 133 per cent as “unsubstantiated”, and pointed to HS1 – where the actual growth has been 37 per cent of predicted figures.
Mike Geddes, professor of public policy at the University of Warwick, also labelled claims that high-speed rail would create jobs across the country as “unproven” and “unreliable.”
But Transport Secretary Philip Hammond, who dropped in just before the end of the four-hour lobby, remained committed to his plans. Asked whether there was a chance the scheme would be dropped amidst the deepest spending cuts since the Second World War, he said: “The government has made it clear that it has a policy commitment to high-speed rail but we will have a consultation in the spring and we will look at the responses to that.
“I understand that for those who the line affects but who do not gain direct access to it, the local impacts are negative. But the job of government is to look at the interests of the nation as a whole, not just the economies of regions that it passes through.”
Members of the Primrose Hill HS2 Reference Group, who are currently seeking legal advice over the consultation, said the meeting had failed to answer their questions.
Tim Stockton, of Gloucester Avenue, said: “I’ve no problem with the idea of high-speed rail, it’s the complete lack of consultation I take issue with. Contrary to what they say, it seems this is a done deal.”