“…the cause of some irritation…”

(…originally published on HS2 and the Environment and  continued from That’s it then, we’re off, part 3 posted on 25 Mar 2016).

The final report of the HS2 Select Committee comments that “there is work to be done [by HS2 Ltd] in improving approaches and responses to the public” (see footnote 1). In contrast, according to the Promoter’s Lead Counsel Tim Mould QC, the Select Committee went about its work with “unfailing courtesy” (see footnote 2). However, there are those that seek to differ with this description of the way that petitioners were treated, and who appear to see the Select Committee as also failing in this respect. According to a press release from the Wendover HS2 action group on 22^nd February “some members of the Select Committee had been exceptionally rude, bullying and disruptive as Petitioners presented their case”.

I have to say that I agree with my Wendover colleagues. In particular, it is surely a gross discourtesy to petitioners, who may have spent many hours preparing exhibits and have psyched themselves up for the considerably daunting task of addressing the Committee, to throw them into disarray by instructing them to change the intended order of their presentation. This occurred with many, and I can’t believe that it served justice or even speeded up the process. I was particularly miffed when the same tactics were applied to a number of the very informative and expert presentations on the environmental impacts of HS2 that the HS2 Action Alliance (HS2AA) brought to the Committee in February (see footnote 3).

As I complained in my blog Facing a brick wall, part 2 (posted 1 Oct 2015), my own petition hearing suffered from similar treatment: not only was I effectively prevented from delivering my carefully crafted presentation, but I was not given the opportunity to show the majority of my exhibits, which in consequence have been omitted from the public record (see footnote 4).

I am fully aware that some petitioners were guilty of being repetitive and long-winded, but this does not justify bullying petitioners who were genuinely trying to present, as best as they were able, evidence that was extremely important to them. The treatment that some received betrays an attitude of some Members of the Committee that is in marked contrast to the praise in the final report for the “huge efforts” and “immensely hard work” put in by petitioners (see footnote 5).

Another area where I find the attitude of the Committee to be extremely worrying is the way that it has approached the considerable harm that HS2 will inflict on our natural environment and its ecology – it has become clear that the Committee does not begin to qualify for the descriptor “environmentally friendly”. In the press release marking the publication of the Select Committee’s final report that I referred to in part 2 of this blog series, HS2AA complains that the report “provides little comfort to anyone hoping the Committee would push for better environmental outcomes in relation to the HS2 project” and that the points made to the Committee by HS2AA “in relation to environmental mitigation barely feature in the report”. The press release adds that “requests made by other environmental organisations and local authorities to improve route wide effects are all rejected”.

I am sure that the House of Commons Environmental Audit Committee will be similarly disappointed with the Select Committee’s efforts. In my blog SEA views, part 6 (posted 28 Jun 2014) I reported that the then Chair of that committee had written to her counterpart for the HS2 Select Committee reminding him that the latter “plays a vital role in fully addressing the environmental impacts” of HS2 and requesting him that his committee “should comment and report to the House [of Commons] on any issue relating [to those impacts]”. Those seeking such “comment and report” in the final report are likely to be disappointed: there appears to be one section, of seven paragraphs (302 to 308) that addresses route-wide impacts upon ecology, and the only specific affects that get a mention are the threats to bat populations and barn owls. Extending the search to the Committee’s interim report will, I venture, fail to unearth anything that adds to this. Very significant route-wide ecological effects, such as the damage to ancient woodland and veteran trees, the fallacy that new woodland planting can compensate for the loss of these “irreplaceable” natural assets and the inadequacy of proposed measures to restore wildlife corridors are largely ignored.

It is perhaps symptomatic of the Committee’s attitude to the natural environment that a witness who doubted, from the contents of the Environmental Statement, that “trees are being treated seriously as environmental and amenity assets and that they would be protected adequately during the process” was told by Sir Peter Bottomley (see footnote 6):

“If you knew as much as we know about an old pear tree halfway along the route, you wouldn’t have said it quite that way.”

I don’t feel the need to offer any apology to Sir Peter and his colleagues if they have found, as his retort would appear to indicate, that the publicity that we have generated for the Cubbington veteran pear tree has been the cause of some irritation. I do, however, deeply regret that, despite our best efforts in this respect, the Select Committee has so obviously failed to get the message.

(To be continued …)

Footnotes:

1. See paragraph 346 in the Select Committee’s final report.
2. See paragraph 9 in the transcript of the afternoon session of the HS2 Select Committee held on Monday 22^ndFebruary 2016.
3. See the transcript of the afternoon session of the HS2 Select Committee held on Monday 1^stFebruary 2016. In particular, the evidence of Philip Branchflower on air quality (and the interjection at paragraph 479), Julie Gartside on carbon emissions (and the interjection at paragraph 560), Jon Berry on trees (and the interjection at paragraph 952) and Nigel Cronin on waste (and the interjection at paragraph 1011).
4. The hearing for my petition was held on the morning of Wednesday 21^stJanuary 2015, and I am first on in the video of that session. To get a feel for the way that I was “invited” to present my case refer to paragraph 5 and paragraph 9 to paragraph 36 of the transcript. Theexhibits that may be downloaded from the Select Committee website omit seventeen of the total of twenty-nine slides that I submitted.
5. See paragraph 403 in the Select Committee’s final report.
6. See paragraphs 967 and 968 in the transcript of the afternoon session of the HS2 Select Committee held on Monday 1^st February 2016.

Important Note: The record of the proceedings of the HS2 Select Committee from which the quotes reproduced in this blog has been taken are uncorrected transcripts of evidence, which are not yet an approved formal record. Neither witnesses nor Members have had the opportunity to correct the record in such instances, and it may therefore be subject to changes being made in the light of any such corrections being requested.