Three new members of the HS2 Hybrid Bill Select Committee have been appointed, replacing Ian Mearns (Labour, Gateshead) and Yasmin Qureshi (Labour, Bolton South East) as well as Mike Thornton who lost his seat at the General Election in May.
Ian Mearns has effectively been promoted as he has been elected as Chair of the Backbench Business Committee in a secret ballot of MPs. We have been very impressed with his hard work in learning about the issues around HS2 and his perceptive questioning. We are sorry to see him go, and wish him all the best in his new role.
The replacements are Geoffrey Clifton-Brown (Conservative, Cotswolds), David Crausby (Labour, Bolton North East) and Mark Hendrick (Labour, Preston).
One thing that is of concern is why it has taken so long since the election to make these changes, as petitions and site visits have taken place, without the new members, who will not be up to speed on various issues?
500 new and previous petitions needed to ensure the impact of the AP2 around Litchfield and along the route for the hundreds entitled to petition. If the petitioner has alread petitioned claim a new petitioning period in front of the Select Committee to ensure you have the time to present the reaction from HS2. Parishes need to petition for the groups to ensure some anti-dote to HS2 DFT divide and rule approach.
The scattered changes along the route demonstrate how intrusive and how incomplete previous plans were in impacts. Remember the process is internal to Parliament and not in your interest but in the interest only of a few people in Parliament with an obsession to ruin the lives of others for a poor plan. More HS2 More Austerity. More future debt spending and no rail travel gain for millions suffering daily transport delays and accidents and aching legs. Thank you for the next 500 petitions to AP2.