CNJ COMMENT - We still don’t know just how bumpy HS2 ride will be

Published: 30 June, 2011

AT last, all parties on Camden Council seem united in their opposition to the high-speed rail project that will re-shape a large area in central Camden – ending in the demolition of hundreds of homes and a swathe of listed buildings as well as a big hotel adjacent to Euston station.

Not to speak of the towering skyscrapers that could be built on a deck over the new-look Euston station.

Hands were joined together in the chamber. Let the government beware, declared the parties: abandon the project.

But is that a vitally true picture of intent at the Town Hall?

While what passed between several leading Labour councillors and Sir Brian Briscoe, chairman of the HS2 company, at a private meeting on Monday is not being made public, it is feared by opponents of the scheme that compromises may have been hinted at if not openly suggested.

Opponents of the scheme also fear the public alliance at the Town Hall may cover up a substantial number of councillors who fatally believe the government juggernaut cannot be derailed.

But is this a straightforward David and Goliath battle where the opponents are bound to be crushed?

While many councillors  and amenity campaigners, are aware of the pros and cons, we contend a large majority of people in Camden are ignorant of  the true human cost and social devastation that will follow in the wake of the scheme.

Nor would it be a surprise to discover that some councillors remain in the dark about all the implications of the scheme given that a “Technical Note” published recently by the government – extraordinarily enough – refers to the HS2 project as being at “an early conceptual stage”. Yet, while government experts themselves are unable to make known “specific” details, that, paradoxically, did not stop the HS2 company from holding “consultation” roadshows in parts of the borough. How, we may ask, can the public be consulted if all the details have not yet been worked out and made public?

A David and Goliath battle? Perhaps. Yet 16 local authorities in different parts of the country, mostly Conservative administrations, have formed a block against the scheme.  Will Camden join them?

A three-line whip in the Commons may silence errant Tory and Lib Dem MPs and win the day for HS2, but a Parliamentary Bill is more than a year away.

When more and more of the public become aware of the huge cost of HS2  – starting conservatively at £34billion – and all at a time of pinching austerity, the odds against the project may change.