NIMBYISM warrants a debate

One of the earliest debates in Parliament next week, is an HS2 debate called by a genuine NIMBY, David Mowat. Mowat is MP for Warrington South and his website says he “has also been at the forefront of the campaign for High Speed Rail.”

Thing is, while Mowat likes HS2 – he just doesn’t like the fact it goes through his constituency. A proper “Not in My Back Yard” NIMBY, who wants the railway to be built – somewhere else. He tried to deny it in his local paper:

But in my speech, I made clear, that I do not support the current route North of Manchester.

That is the bit that goes from Piccadilly to Wigan, bisecting parts of Culcheth in particular.

This is not nimbyism but is because that part of the route costs ﾣ1billion and there is no business case for it – the projected benefits accrue because we connect London to Manchester, Cheshire and Liverpool.

The arguments in favour of the Wigan spur, appear to be the location of a goods yard at Wigan and 10 mins off the journey to Glasgow. These do not stack up to ﾣ1billion.

Back in 2011, he even posed in front of the Yes to HSR’s bus with Pete Waterman (who wants HS2, so he can run steam trains on the West Coast Main Line, and issued a press release with David Begg, who incidentally was one of the cheerleaders for what is now called the Edinburgh Tram Disaster.

PS The debate is on Tuesday 2nd September 4pm – 4.30 in Committee Room 10