Nicholas Ward Against HS2

In Westminster North, Nicholas Ward is standing as an Independent candidate against HS2. We throughly endorse his campaign.

Nicholas has been active in the campaign against HS2: he has been an observer the HS2 Hybrid Bill Select Committee on a number of occasions. He says on his website:

… I have one simple objective – to try to stop HS2, the Government’s vanity project to drive a new high speed rail line from Euston through North and West London and then on through the English countryside to Birmingham, Leeds and Manchester. The project will cost at least £51 billion, but many informed commentators expect that the final cost will be much higher. The construction phase will disrupt our lives for a generation.

It would be the largest-ever infrastructure project in the UK, and the Government claims that it will meet long-term demand and rebalance the economy by stimulating growth in the north of England.

Many people question this scheme. On 25th March, a few weeks before the General Election, the Economic Affairs Committee of the House of Lords issued a report saying that it is not at all clear that HS2 represents the best, most cost-effective solution to the problems it is intended to solve. They said “the scale of the alleged capacity problem is unclear and the Government has not demonstrated that HS2 is the most effective way of achieving the desired rebalancing of the economy.” With mind-defying arrogance, a Government minister has dismissed this report out of hand….