Authority hits out at HS2 bosses over route alteration

DONCASTER COUNCIL has said HS2’s route through Yorkshire should not have changed from its original plan to include a station at Meadowhall after it emerged more homes than previously expected will be demolished on the new proposed line.

In 2016, HS2 bosses scrapped a plan to build a dedicated South Yorkshire station close to the Meadowhall shopping centre to the north of Sheffield in favour of moving the main route east closer to the M18 and adapting the existing Sheffield railway station to have a ‘spur’ onto the main highspeed line.

Previously HS2 had said the M18 route would involve the demolition of 16 homes on the Shimmer Estate in Mexborough but documents published last week revealed 52 properties on the Shimmer Estate are now set to be bulldozed, along with eight on nearby Doncaster Road. Further north of Mexborough, documents show two homes on Ludwell Hill in Barnburgh and one on Top Lane in Clayton would also be pulled down.

It is intended that a 19m-high railway viaduct will pass over where the Shimmer Estate is now based.

In a statement from Doncaster Council yesterday, Mayor of Doncaster Ros Jones said: “We will look carefully at the latest information from HS2 to make sure they are taking the interests and needs of local residents and communities into consideration.

“We will do everything we can to minimise the impact of this scheme which we still believe could have been delivered more easily, with less impact and better outcomes if they had stayed with the original proposals and a station at Meadowhall. We will be liaising and sharing information with all stakeholders as soon as we receive it.”

HS2 Ltd said it had “always been very clear that our early plans for the railway would continue to evolve” in relation to the changing demolition numbers. A 10-week consultation has started on the new HS2 information.