Maria Eagle, Shadow Transport Secretary, made a stop at Burton Green on her tour of the area affected by the proposed HS2. One of the purposes of her visit, she explained, was to meet local residents. She did genuinely listen to all concerns and raised questions of her own.
Betty, who has lived in Burton Green for over 40 years, explained where she lived and how she would be affected. Other concerns raised were the lack of a proper consultation, the exclusion in that consultation of environmental issues, and the lack of the business case.
Mention was made of Mr Cameron’s comment that HS2 was a done deal. Ms Eagles was questioned on Lord Adonis’s original plan put forward by the last Labour Government, and she explained that her remit was to learn more on the proposed plan and to revisit the transport policy.
The meeting lasted for 40 minutes at Burton Green and while she appeared genuinely interested to learn of all the issues on HS2, whether she will be able to assist in the tight Government timeframe remains to be seen.
She did mention that the consultation date will be announced in the next few days with the start date likely to be 21 December 2010. A early indication of Cameron and Hammond’s spin to try to bury bad news in the run up to Christmas.