HS2 Action Alliance Blog

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Some poignant poetry kicked-off the Great Missenden Rally. Local children recited numerous public sector cuts, before ending each verse ‘But still they’re buying the high speed train’.

Next up was Martin Tett, Conservative Councillor for Buckinghamshire. Tett confirmed that the children were right: ‘HS2 is one of the worst value for money projects that probably any Government since the war has come forward with’. Reflecting on meeting the DFT and Philip Hammond on four occasions, he pointed out their blatant disregard for the beauty of the Chilterns (‘its’ just fields’) and their failure to recognise the inadequacies of the business argument.

Something needed to be done, and a new campaign called 51M is part of the answer. Uniting local authorities from London to Birmingham, the campaign stands for the cost per Parliamentary constituency of HS2 – a staggering £51 million!

Director of HS2 Action Alliance, Hilary Wharf, then scrutinised the Government’s business case. The DFT claim shorter journeys for business individuals will allow them to get more work done, creating just over £13 billion of wealth. It all sounds reasonable, or at least if you ignore the technological advances of video conferencing and the ability to work productively on trains. Just imagine the technological advances by 2026 or 2032...

Finally it was the turn of Steve Rodrick, Chief Officer of the Chilterns Conservation Board. He rightly pointed out that the Chilterns are part of England’s national heritage, to be enjoyed and protected by the whole of our country. Then there was the factual inaccuracies pouring fourth from the DFT.  They claimed that 680,000 cubed meters of ground would be removed; in-fact it would be 12 million cubed meters – only 17 times off then!