Packham initiates new petition opposing HS2

A petition calling for work on HS2 to stop immediately had received more than 15,000 signatures as this issue of RAIL went to press.

Television presenter, naturalist and campaigner Chris Packham is one of the lead signatories of the petition, which calls for a new vote to be held to repeal the legislation granting its construction. Other lead signatories include Iceland Foods Managing Director Richard Walker, Human Rights and

Civil Liberties Barrister Michael Mansfield QC, and former HS2

Ltd Land & Property Director Doug Thornton.

The signatories claim that key reasons to stop the work include HS2 being grossly over budget, that it cannot be delivered on budget or on time to the specification approved by Parliament, that HS2 has abused landowners up and down the route, and that HS2 misled Parliament in order to achieve the legislation needed for the project.

Packham said: “Projects such as HS2, Heathrow Airport’s expansion and a vast new road building programme take us further away from where we need to be, and time is rapidly running out.

“The world has changed dramatically since MPs voted on HS2 back in 2016. HS2 takes us further away from achieving Net Zero by 2050, it destroys a vast swathe of irreplaceable wildlife habitats, and squanders a colossal amount of taxpayers’ money on a business case that was bankrupt even before COVID, and that has now spiralled to double the cost MPs voted upon.

“Add to this our economic crisis, and we can see that MPs should be given the power to reconsider HS2 and vote again on whether this disaster project should continue, be rethought, or scrapped entirely.”

The campaigners claim HS2’s current cost is an estimated £108 billion, and that independent research by Lord Berkeley shows this could reach £170bn.

A spokesman for HS2 Ltd responded: “As the Divisional Court noted in its judgement on Chris Packham’s case in April, HS2 has been democratically approved by MPs with resounding majorities in Parliament on several occasions, with the approval of the extension from the West Midlands to Crewe expected early in 2021.

“The case for HS2 - more capacity on our railways, better connectivity in the Midlands and North, and cutting carbon in transport - all remain important issues for the UK.

“Crucially, HS2 is already playing a pivotal role in helping Britain’s post-pandemic economic recovery. We have begun construction and there are 13,000 people already working on the project, with hundreds of thousands of additional jobs supported through our supply chain.”

When throwing out Packham’s case (after which he then appealed to the High Court and lost again), the Judge in the Divisional Court verdict said: “[The HS2] works were long ago authorised by Parliament and there is a strong public interest in ensuring that, in a democracy, activities sanctioned by Parliament are not stopped by individuals merely because they do not personally agree with them.”

The Judgement of the court is at: https://www.judiciary.uk/ judgments/christopher-packhamcbe-v-sos-for-transport-the-primeminister-hs2-limited/