This was our nest egg... now I have nothing to show for it

Businessmen count personal and financial cost of losing business to HS2

THERE have been times this year when Darren Bartlett had contemplated ‘giving up on life’.

“My wife was really worried about me, so I’m not ashamed to say I’m on antidepressants,” said the 53-year-old.

“The toll this whole thing has taken on me has been horrendous.

“They have stolen my land, my health, my pension, my children’s inheritance, my life – I can’t see it ever ending.”

Mr Bartlett, a burly, straighttalking Brummie, is fighting back tears of frustration as he reflects on his lengthy battle with HS2.

He claims that he – and many neighbouring businesses in Alum Rock, Saltley and Duddeston to the east of Birmingham – are still desperately out of pocket after relinquishing thriving businesses under orders of the high speed rail (HS2) project.

He insists he has pleaded, threatened, begged and taken legal steps to try to recover the £700,000 or so he says he is owed but to no avail.

At the centre of the battle is a plot of land in Hereford Square, which runs off Saltley Viaduct, just up from the the junction of High Street and Crawford Street, opposite Saltley Business Park.

Until July last year, it was the thriving base for a car repair business and a car wash and valeting company.

But, like other plots along the edge of Saltley Viaduct, it has been bought up by compulsory purchase order to prepare for the HS2 link in and out of Curzon Street in the centre of the city.

Mr Bartlett, a father-of-two and grandfather-of-three, and his elder brother Andy, 54, were co-owners of the land, which they had taken over from their father in 1990.

“This was a brilliant little business operation,” he said.

“The companies on here were hard-working and thriving – the car wash had a contract with Uber, there was always a queue, and the

garage had a great reputation. We had received lots of offers to sell the land over the years, because it’s a prime site, but we always knocked them back.

“This was our nest egg – it gave us a decent annual income, and was my kids’ inheritance, and my pension pot. Now it’s gone and I’ve nothing to show for it.

“And I wonder if I ever will.”

Like other business owners in the neighbourhood, the Bartletts have found the process of agreeing compensation with HS2 over compulsory purchase orders a very difficult process.

“The first we knew of what was happening was in 2012, when we got a letter from HS2 about the proposed route.

“Over the next four years things developed and changed constantly – first they wanted just a small piece of our land, then eventually they wanted the lot.”

Throughout those early stages there were repeated promises of a speedy resolution.

“People from HS2 and their agents would look me in the eye and say ‘it will be fine, don’t worry’ – then nothing would happen again,” said Mr Bartlett.

A Government review into HS2 was confirmed last week, which could lead to the scheme being scrapped, although many consider this an unlikely result.

Northfield Labour MP Liam Byrne has put the complaints of people such as the Bartletts to Mark Thurston, chief executive of HS2, and urged him to ‘get a grip’ on the issue.

He said: “People see that HS2 are spending billions drilling tunnels through greener parts of England but cannot spend what’s needed to help people affected in poorer parts of our inner city. It does look like one rule for the rich and another for the poor.”

He said it was “unacceptable” that land agents employed by HS2 were making it so incredibly difficult for businesses to receive what they were entitled to.

“There seems to be a lack of recognition that these are people’s lives and livelihoods at stake.”

Mr Byrne pledged to continue pressing for speedy resolution for the companies affected, adding: “The impact on some people has been awful. They feel powerless in the face of bureaucracy.”

No comment from HS2 was available as the Post went to press.