HS2 route ‘targets council’s estates’ - Angry residents say high-speed rail link set for Chalcot in Adelaide Road

Published: 06 January 2011
by JOSIE HINTON

THE new route for the High Speed Two (HS2) rail link “targets Camden’s council estates,” angry residents told HS2 engineers at the Town Hall.

The comments were made during a meeting of residents and tenants groups and HS2 engineers on Christmas Eve, two days after the department for transport published a revised route for the £32m scheme.

The route includes no reprieve for Euston – where the council-owned blocks of Ainsdale, Eskdale and Silverdale will be demolished – but the tunnel has been shifted 100 metres north as it approaches Primrose Hill, therefore passing underneath the Chalcot estate in Adelaide Road.

John Rolfe, of the Hilgrove Estate Resi­dents Association, told engineers: “It seems like the revised route is des­igned to go under every council estate in Camden. It almost targets council estates from Euston all the way along.”

Flo Cubbin, from the Alexandra and Ains­worth estate tenants and residents association, added: “I feel Camden may have perceived the council estates to be a soft target.”

But Andrew Mc­Naughton, chief engineer for HS2, said: “We have altered the route because in the last six months we have been seeking to find the best location to put tunnel ventilation shafts. We found optimum positions for the shafts in Adelaide Road.”

The new plans also include a link between HS2 and the existing HS1 Channel Tunnel rail route. Consultation on the revised route is due to begin in February.