HS2 Extend Their Cloak of Secrecy, Demanding the Signing of 276 Gagging Orders.
An FOI response to New Civil Engineer has confirmed the rapid expansion of the use of gagging orders, referred...
Latest News
Commons Library Alters Briefing to Prove £65bn HS2 Cost Estimate Came From Government.
A briefing paper written for the House of Commons Library has been edited following accusations from the Department for...
Stop HS2 at the Time is Now Parliamentary Lobby
On 26th June around 12,000 people joined in with the Time is Now lobby, to demand action on climate...
Do HS2 Proponents Realise Their Economically Illiterate Claim is that High Speed Rail Will Eradicate Unemployment?
Last week, the HS2 Vested Interest Syndicate, or “High Speed Rail Industry Leaders Group” as they like to be...
Government misleads public as HS2 has been £9bn over-budget for 4 years, says Commons report.
A briefing paper written for the House of Commons Library has revealed that at the time of the 2015...
Is Boris gung-ho or skeptical on HS2?
Boris Johnson is proving to be something of a chameleon on HS2. According to the Birmingham Mail, Boris Johnson...
Proof, if it were ever needed, that HS2 are illegally destroying nests in nesting season.
HS2 continue their ecocide just outside Balsall Common as they widen a road to facilitate green belt housing developments for future London commuters around the ‘Birmingham Interchange’ parkway station. You know, the one the former chief engineer said would lead to the creation of a new city between Birmingham and Coventry. Sign the petition to get them to stop work until their actually get the full go-ahead here.
“Will you commit to cancelling HS2?” – Tory Leadership campaign
We had expected to have to spend an age trailing through the Conservative leadership candidates’ social media feeds and...
Is this the most Desperate and Deceptive Spin ever from the HS2 Functionaries?
According to various elements of the press this week, a study has taken place which has shown that thousands...
Leadsom: £12bn ‘could have been spent on HS2 already.
In a remarkable turn, former Leader of the House long time critic of HS2 and Conservative leadership hopeful Andrea Leadsom MP, has told LBC that she hasn’t come right out and promise to cancel HS2 is because £12bn ‘could’ have been spent on the project so far. The MP says that HS2 should be reviewed on a value for money basis, with the suggested costs being a massive departure from the £5bn CEO Mark Thurston stated has been spent so far a fortnight ago.
Whilst Thurston says HS2 Ltd have spent around £5bn, it is accepted that this figure does not represent overall spend so far on the project as buying land and property for the line is the responsibility of the Department for Transport, at least in accounting terms. Whilst it has been widely reported that the estimated cost of buying land had been grossly underestimated, this could not account for a £7bn shortfall on its own, especially as much of the land HS2 require for phase one has been seized without payment.
Another possibility is that Government feel they are liable for the full value of one or more of the two-part design and build contracts, even though the build part of them should not legally kick-in until the project were to get Notice to Proceed. If that were the case, that would be very, very suspect.
The other reason is that Mrs Leadsom might be wrong, but the way she very deliberately said that it ‘could be’ £12bn and she wasn’t sure if that figure was ‘out there’, suggested it had been discussed at Cabinet, but not yet made public. HS2 officials have of course denied this.