Earlier this week, the Primrose Hill HS2 Reference Group held a public meeting in Camden – Lizzy Williams was one of the speakers.
They’ve now put the handout up on their website – you can download it here.
One of their concerns is about the effects of the HS2 plan on the regeneration around Euston. As locals they know the area better then civil servants working for the Department for Transport or HS2 Ltd.
Their leaflet states:
“The maps provided by HS2 for the Camden section of the route are inaccurate. We are therefore going into the consultation without proper information. HS2 Ltd is unable to quantify, even as an estimate, the required land take. The proposal for the surface link across Camden between HS2 and HS1 appears to be an afterthought. It would have severe constructional and operational impacts on the centre of Camden.
Camden’s Unified Development Plan envisages a regenerated Euston Station within today’s footprint. This would be subject to planning control, would involve community consultation and would be under the control of the elected London Borough of Camden. Any Section 106 money (provided by developers to boost local amenities) would accrue to Camden. HS2 plans a much larger Euston footprint, sacrificing established communities and blighting Camden for years. “
It goes on to say:
“In 2026 Old Oak Common (west of Paddington and on Cross Rail) becomes the interim terminus for HS2 pending the completion of tunnelling to Euston, the last element in the project. If this final section to Euston section is delayed or cancelled, there will be no Euston regeneration: just continued uncertainty and blight.”
This echoes concerns from Birmingham about the proposed Washwood Heath maintenance depot. Three local MPs – who themselves are in favour of HS2 – are unhappy about the plans. The HS2 proposals for the site would mean 300 low-killed jobs, in a decade’s time, whereas their alternative plans would create 3500 higher-skilled jobs much sooner.
If the Implied suggestion is that the Old Oak Common Site, a railway depot for over a hundred years, should be sold off for other development, effectively blocking it for future railway use, then it is to be strongly resisted!
Whether or not HS2 goes ahead, we have had more than enough short term profit, sell offs, which add to the difficulty and expense of any future railway development.
Just look at how Chiltern have had to fit in fiirst a depot and then extra platforms at Marylebone, when more and more of the original site had been sold for “development.”