While waiting for the Queen’s speech…

While waiting for the Queen’s speech, here are some interesting blogs and other articles that have appeared on the Stop HS2 radar in the last week or so:

The Sunday Telegraph: Battle plan to avert Tory war

“…And he [David Cameron] will offer an olive branch to his critics by avoiding Parliamentary legislation on the controversial High Speed 2 rail link and watering down plans to reform the House of Lords. “

Nikki Williams, head of campaigning at the Woodland Trust writes High Speed 2 – We need answers!

“We would have loved to have been able to welcome High Speed 2. …

“But there is a snag! It just ain’t green! The route means that 21 irreplacable ancient woods are going to be destroyed. These are valuable woods, part of ancient woodland which covers just 2% of our land, and once gone, they are never able to be replaced.”

Steve Baker, MP for Wycombe, picked up on our article on the amber/red rating for HS2 and has looked at it in a broader context: Justine Greening must review HS2 in the public interest.

From Murad Qureshi, a London Assembly member from 2004 – HS2 community consultation deeply flawed already.

” Having now attended two HS2 Community Forums, it tells me everything about how not to conduct community and planning consultations on major infrastructural investments.”

(This is a point made at the Transport Select Committee last year: that HS2 are handling the public engagement badly.)

The LSE blog has an article by Sir Gus O’Donnell – Ten Commandments of good policy making: a retrospective by Sir Gus O’Donnell.

Although Gus only explicitly mentions High Speed Rail once, a number of the rules for good policy making are highly relevant for HS2 – but unfortunately are being ignored by the Department for Transport.

From News Biscuit last year, but still worth a read: HS2 route to be tunnelled under Brussels to get to China more quickly.

4 comments to “While waiting for the Queen’s speech…”
  1. Spoke to hs2 yesterday and they do not know when the consultation on compensation will be published

  2. Just heard Michael Fallon MP saying on radio 5 that government could be taken to court if it doesnt follow correct procedure on hs2!!

    • John
      “Could” is not an appropriate word. 5 judicial reviews have been lodged against the government concerning HS2. So it “will” be going to court.

      • hi Adam

        I know that but my point was that a senior MP doesn’t nor have I heard the BBC/Sky or most of the written media report it—they need to raise their game as after all we are talking in excess of an additional 36 billion plus of debt!

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