Class Action Against HS2

Campaigners, who hope to make legal history by launching a class action-style suit against HS2 Ltd and the Secretary of State over the proposed High Speed Rail line, have launched a new website this week.

Staffordshire businessmen Trevor Forrester, Stephen Bailey and Nick Rafferty, have gone live with the ‘CAHS2 – Property Righted Not Blighted’ www.cahs2.com website as the second reading of the High Speed Rail (Preparation) Bill was set to take place later today in the House of Commons.

Trevor Forrester, who lives in Ingestre, has set up Class Action HS2 Ltd (CAHS2) which, through its new website, aims to get sufficient backing to push ahead with a class action lawsuit against the Government over HS2 and the devastating impact it will have on property values.

There are, according to CAHS2, more than 300,000 properties blighted by HS2, outside of the safeguarded areas, all without adequate compensation and CAHS2 intend to seek out all of those property owners to join the action which could mean 500,000 affected people will be represented.

15 comments to “Class Action Against HS2”
  1. So the transport minster is offering to buy your home if it comes within a certain distance from the track but if your home is one yard more from the track does this mean you will hear less see less no .compension should be for all who have to put up with any problems this project causes .arfter all they did not ask for hs2 the govenment is forcing it on to people’s lives so they should be propley compensioned for any blight caused.no matter at what cost if they can afford and find up to 100billions they can find the small amount for the people affected and just one other thing how much is it going to cost in interest alone ? As I take it we have no money to pay cash for hs2 so let’s borrow a bit more and see all of the homeowners right by this project or put a stop to it now

  2. Now the cbi come out against hs2 this project must be stopped the way the govenment is handling the compension is a joke .a little here a little there .if the project is to go forward they should have the balls to tell us the true cost including proper compension for all the people affeced as in Germany .maney would agree the project is now heading for over 100 billion the time every thing is added in .can we really afford this sort of money to get people to Birmingham saving 10or15 mins, when all of our main services are being cut to the bone .if this govenment carries on like they are they should be held to account for wasting all this money when so maney people have been warning them about the cost of the project

  3. I fully support your aims and am sickened that Osborne and his silly bunch seem to care not one jot for people.He has stated that ‘in a recession one can not worry about the environment and society’ and he is a truly nasty, selfish man,His plans to concrete the countryside with 200 new roads is another example of his insanity and he and his cohorts should be sacked.He only cares for short term profit and those with money who no doubt pay his party money and vote for him.

    We need to repair our present roads, reduce rail fares and help small railway lines.

    I gave some food to a food bank today and it made me think how can politicians consider spending 60 billion on this railway and roads when the money could be better used to help people.

    They only ever seem to think about money and not quality of life, recreational countryside and the awfulness of evicting people on the routes of these projects.

    Good luck to you. I have no political affiliations but want to see common sense and compassion prevail.

    Best wishes,

    Mark

  4. With all the high profile people and papers against hs 2 when will our govenment agree to cancel this project and give all of the house owners there lives back .they must no now that this venture is a total waste of tax payers money and is just a money pit giving no return for the billions which it will cost ,which no one can give a final figure it could run into hundreds of billions if the project and people are going to be treated right .we can not afford this amount so why not call it a day and stop wasting any more money on this money pit of an idea and stop trying to keep giving excuses to justify this project

    • oh so because some high profile people and most of the papers are against it we should cancel it ??? Is that your idea of democracy ?????????????

      • No vtiman.

        It’s just that more and more people are starting to see through the shifting arguments and the “smoke and mirrors” that the government puts up to justify HS2. Quite a few of them aren’t even NIMBYs.

      • No because lord M revealed the project was a political ploy and lacked real foundation/planning.
        And because despite the vast amount of publicity and money spent on promoting this scam 12 % majority of the population disagree with it.(latest poll)
        If this was a democracy it should not proceed without a Public Inquiry.
        It is only MPs who do not represent their constituency opinion are pushing it that it has progressed thus far.
        Like concorde this is a politically driven white elephant justified by specious claims.
        It flies in the face of academic opinon and contemporary re-evaluations of HS2 in europe,usa etc.
        It simply represents the worst aspects of British Political meddling and manipulation.

  5. Surely this is a human rights issue. The woefully inadequate compensation arrangements mean that the government is depriving individual property owners, living near the HS2 line and maintenance depot, of their personal assets, damaging their lifestyles and restricting freedom of movement for over a decade. State sanctioned robbery!

  6. The tunnels will be dug right under my house and garden – I bought this house 30 years ago and I can not believe the government can just step in and steal from the value of my property. It has taken us that long to pay for the mortgage and we are outraged that they think they have the right to put a train through our garden. Please stop HS2 by any means you can. This entire project does not make sense for the sake of reaching 20 minutes sooner to Birmingham, thousands and thousands of people have to be affected. This is madness and needs to be stopped Please!!

    • It has dismayed me that so many proponents of HS2 have gleefully expressed vile and negative concerns about ordinary and decent householders such as yourself facing serious and signicant trauma created by an ignoble political project.
      It should be a Human Rights issue..
      Your sentiments are honest and the truth of your position is distressing. A casualty that Parliament ignores to its moral peril.
      Have you written to your MP and explored http://www.cahs2.com

      • Paul, Thank you for your comments, appreciated. I have written many times to Caroline Spellman our MP and have constant contact with the group in our area – HHAG. I wrote a massive reply to the compensation options before Christmas and will be writing a reply to the Environmental paper. My latest complaint is against the MAP BOOK that was presented at our local HS2 open day. They show my house clearly on the map and they say the noise of the train ends on the other side of my back garden fence. I can hear the existing train but it is muffled by being low down and covered with trees, So if I can hear that what is the level of noise going to be like with HS2 elevated above the existing track some 9 meters? We are just at the position where HS2 will cross the existing line and there will be a depot the other side of that with arc lighting etc etc etc etc.
        I will be following cahs2 constantly and supporting thier action.

        • I believe on independent advice and that the HS2 ltd soundmaps and opinion is grossly inaccurate and may be intentionally so. Certainly my inquiries re same have not been answered.,,,,in my book no answer is no(deliberate) answer. I would discuss the matter with the Ladbrooke group who have done significant and scary work on sound that matches the opinion of my advisor.
          http://wcchs2.files.wordpress.com/2012/08/hs2_envher_report_compressed1final.pdf

          I don’t know about you but DC on HS2 now reminds me of that early 1990s novelty ‘the singing bass’ an automaton fish.
          My young,innocent, ingenue children loved it for its superficial attractivness…….my relation to its sickly, glib, cant quickly tired and I committed it to the rubbish bin whilst inventing the sort of story for much loved but deceased goldfish.
          It is a shame that Cameron cannot see that HS2 is just a much loved minor political pet but that real lived lives rely on him.
          One can ‘flush’ or have an elaborate ceremony (we went for elaborate ceremonials and markers) but the reality is that HS2 is not the key issue for the nation as he and the Hs2 machine contends but a 4 second recall goidfish that has expired.
          This parliament is committing megabillions to resuscitate a fairground goldfish (with limited expectations of survival) whilst significant members of the
          Polis suffer from central cuts and ‘austerity’ justified deprivation that mars their lives. His great expectations of HS2 are likely as illusory as Pips.
          Certainly their references to Victorian Rail are as significant as Ms Haversham’s Feast and likely have the same end.

          When you can bet so many billions on a punt who believes you are so poor as you make out (unless you are being untruthful or downright dysfunctional.
          Mr Cameron (Rt Hon etc) you talked about ethics (judgemntally) to your ‘esteemed political equal’ Mr Milleband who also thinks HS2 is excellent.
          To satisfy your collective egos how many children and elderly need to die and suffer privation in order to justify your huge expenditure on HS2 in a situation such as this? For every wasteful billion you spend on dreams and an ego driven specious punt; children and elderly here and abroad die for want of the commonplace.
          Your legacy will be measured in the politics of austerity and HS2 blight

  7. Well done Trevor!!!!
    Exactly the way I feel about the whole compensation set up. Why should I loose the value of my house and have to prove “hardship”. So that means if I have any other assets or savings I wont be hardup if I loose the value of this house. Outrageous!!! They have no right to take whats mine its STEALING.
    I will be monitoring cahs2 with great interest, my home will be 200 meters from HS2 with uninteruped views of a 9 meter elevated section of the line.

  8. Money should be spent improving existing services. How many people are going to benefit by shaving a short time of their journeys? What are all the jobs that this is to bring?

    • Michael, a number of the speakers at the Stafford Convention last Saturday, made it clear that they recognised the need for extra capacity to relieve pressure on parts of the West Coast network- this isn’t primarily about “bums on seats” but rather “trains on tracks”, tracks, moreover , that are already dangerously close to capacity and ,so we are warned, needing to make up a backlog of renewal and maintenance over some of the busiest sections at the southern end.
      (“Shaving a few minutes…” is not the only reason, though obviously it attracts much attention)

      Whatever the speed, more track space-and train pathsare needed. Different kinds of traffic with differing speeds and differing stopping patterns are each competing fpor a finite number of train ‘paths’.

      The question is, where should they go and what form should they take .

      There is pressure to increase rail freight- especially container traffic from the East and South coast ports.
      *A container train can move the equivilent of 40 lorry loads for the long haul.
      Haven Ports-Harwich and Felixtowe- continue to expand; they plan to double the rail freight passing through, while Southampton is sending more containers north – the Cherwell route has been upgraded to accommodate larger’boxes’-(and with many feeding into the West Coast routes at the Coventry pinch point) and also the new port at Shellhaven,’London Gateway’ and another at Grain at the mouth of the Medway, are under development…

      In view of the previous experience -upgrading the WCML which could not be completed despite running months over the planned timescale and costing many times the original budget, with resulting delays, disruption and ‘bustitution’ , it is unlikely that Network Rail would even entertain trying that again!

      In the early days of the New Labour government, Mrs Short responded to my enquiry about the Central Railways ‘ proposal to rebuild a section of the former Great Central line-Rugby, Brackley and ,beyond Calvert, via the formerlink to what is now the Chiltern Mainline through Risborough. She said that the then government had confidence that the improvements for the WCML together with the planned “Piggyback”- transporting loaded lorries onlow level rail wagons- would satisfy the demand.

      Well, we know what happened to the West Coast upgrade- and “Piggyback” never took off.

      If, despite Coalition assurances (and Labour support) the HS2 project were to be proved unaffordable, and cancelled, delayed or seriously downgraded so as to be less intrusive, then would it not be a good idea to re examine the alternative of using more of the old Great Central formation,from near Brackley as far as the approach to Rugby, where a new link link could connect with both the West Midland and the Trent Valley main lines?

      Most of this ex main line still exists and could be recovered- after all this “last main line” was engineered for high speed and built to accommodate Continental size rail vehicles- while far lessless new land would be dug up’

      But- would the “NO” campaigners in South Northants, Oxon. and Warickshire support and push for such an alternative in their area?

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