Leadsom calls for halt to HS2 works cutting through countryside
Business Secretary writes to rail line chief ‘on behalf of constituents’ asking for pause while review goes on
ANDREA LEADSOM has called for an immediate halt to works clearing the way for High Speed 2 until Boris Johnson decides whether to push ahead with the scheme.
The MP and Business Secretary has written to the government-owned firm behind the scheme setting out concerns raised by local residents about the impact of preparation works being carried out on the countryside through which the line is due to run.
Mrs Leadsom, the MP for South Northamptonshire, said many constituents had asked for the so-called “enabling works” to be paused amid concerns about “possibly unnecessary disruption to the surrounding countryside”, given that the line could be scrapped following a review commissioned by Mr Johnson.
She wrote to Mark Thurston, the chief executive of HS2, last week, to make the request “on their behalf ”.
David Lidington, who was Theresa May’s de facto deputy prime minister, and Jeremy Wright, the former culture secretary, are also calling for the postponement of works that could cause “irreversible damage”, until the result of the review later this month.
Mr Wright said: “Surely it is possible and sensible to categorise those types of enabling work that will do irreversible damage and postpone them until the review has concluded.”
The MPs’ intervention follows a call by more than 40 local councils for preliminary work on the line to be halted after Mrs May’s administration delayed the start of major construction works, including the building of tunnels and viaducts until December.
Conservation charities have expressed concerns that preliminary works preparing the landscape across the route of the Y-shaped line could cause damage that would be pointless if the scheme is later scrapped or its route altered. The Woodland Trust warned: “If huge swathes of ancient woodland are destroyed and HS2 is then scrapped then we will have lost a rare, irreplaceable habitat for nothing.”
Douglas Oakervee, a former chairman of HS2 Ltd, the governmentowned firm responsible for the scheme, is carrying out a review of the line for Mr Johnson, to consider “whether and how HS2 should proceed”.
Last week Grant Shapps, the new Transport Secretary, confirmed that the total estimated cost of the scheme had risen from £56billion to up to £88billion, and that the first phase, between London and Birmingham, would be delayed by up to five years.
In a message to constituents, Mrs Leadsom, a longtime opponent of the scheme, said: “Many constituents who have contacted me about the Oakervee Review... have asked for the ongoing HS2 enabling works in Northamptonshire to be paused, subject to the review’s final recommendations, to prevent possibly unnecessary disruption to the surrounding countryside.
“I have therefore written to the Chief Executive of HS2 Ltd, Mark Thurston, to make this request on their behalf.”
In July, The Sunday Telegraph disclosed that Mr Johnson was considering plans to put the southern half of HS2 on ice amid mounting concerns about the costs of the scheme, and begin building the railway line in the North, rather than London. Those proposals are being examined in the review.
Asked last week whether he would postpone the enabling works, Mr Shapps said: “I have to make a go/nogo decision in December... to have a proper go/no-go decision, we need to continue to allow enabling works.”
Yesterday the BBC reported that HS2 Ltd had spent £1.25billion buying property in London to clear the way for the line.