Council loses legal battle to stop HS2 lorries

Buckinghamshire Council has lost its High Court appeal to stop HS2 creating what it claims are four severely environmentally damaging lorry routes to its construction sites.

It has described the ruling by judge Sir Duncan Ouseley on July 21 to uphold the decisions by planning inspectors as “bitterly disappointing”.

The county’s transport leader Steven Broadbent is unapologetic for taking the case to the highest level.

He said: “It was always the right thing to do for our residents and communities. We and other local authorities are already limited in our overall influence and control on much of the HS2 scheme. This decision puts a further financial burden on us to provide more and more evidence when challenging anything HS2 does in our area.

“This is so unjust, when our residents are already covering the cost of a huge infrastructure project whose construction is causing disruption to a wide swathe of Buckinghamshire.”

The lorry routes that were challenged are at Small Dean Viaduct in Wendover, at the Chiltern Tunnel’s north portal, and at three worksites at Little Missenden, Chesham, and the north portal.

The council has decided not to appeal. But it says it will continue to “work tirelessly” to mitigate the impact of the construction and do whatever it can to influence the design of the railway, lorry routes and traffic management.