Lizzy Williams completed her walk of the entire planned route of HS2 on October 4th, and as a reward for finishing, Philip Hammond announced the next stage of HS2, connecting to Leeds and Manchester! Of course announcing Stage 2 before the public consultation has even started shows that the Government just consider the consultation to be a legal hoop they have to jump through, a formality, no more, no less. You can even hear it in the Prime Ministers voice as he speaks to BBC WM.
Click here to listen to David Camerons statement, followed by a conversation between Philip Hammond and Lizzy Williams on BBC WM. (We have no idea why they think she lives in Hints by the way!)
In his interview for BBC Midlands Today, Prime Minister David Cameron shows that he hasn’t paid attention to the plans for HS2, stating that all the evidence shows HS2 will have great regeneration affects throughout the country, in clear contradiction to what the University of Barcelona and Imperial College London have said. He also says that it will be good for the environment to get people out of cars and onto HS2, despite the fact that HS2 will be 35% more polluting than car travel.
You can also see two videos of protests and reaction from people attending the meetings with Philip Hammond in Coleshill and Lichfield on October 5th.