6/9/10 – CAMPAIGNER CONTINUES MARATHON WALK THROUGH WARWICKSHIRE AS MORE PUBLIC EVENTS PLANNED

CAMPAIGNER CONTINUES MARATHON WALK THROUGH WARWICKSHIRE AS MORE PUBLIC EVENTS PLANNED

Lizzy Williams, who began her marathon walk of the HS2 mainline on 1^st of September in Staffordshire will today [7^th September] embark on Day Seven of her walk, continuing through South Warwickshire after walking through North Warwickshire and the West Midlands last week. Following a highly successful event on Sunday, when hundreds of people walked and rode along the Kenilworth Greenway to Burton Green, more events in Warwickshire and Buckinghamshire are being planned for this weekend [11^th September].

Williams, 36, said; “The Greenway walk on Sunday was brilliant. It was great that so many people turned up to celebrate the countryside and it was amazing that so many people were knowledgeable about the fact there are so many holes in the business plan and know that there are no environmental benefits. There are events planned for this weekend it is going to be brilliant that more people will be getting off their backsides and making their feelings known. There’s obviously a lot more to do besides, but it’s great to see so many people standing together against HS2.

Joe Rukin, Acting Convenor of National Campaigning Body Stop HS2 said “The whole point of Lizzy walking the route has been to raise public awareness of the realities of HS2 and to counter the fraudulent claims made about the benefits of HS2. People have to realise that they have to do something before the Government throw away hundreds of successful businesses, thousands of acres of countryside and billions of pounds which this country has not got. The more we get the facts across, the more people realise what HS2 means, the more difficult it will be for the Government to commit to this badly conceived proposal.”

Lizzy Williams, who is currently walking the entire route of HS2 from Lichfield to London, before coming back to walk the spur into Birmingham to coincide with Conservative Party Conference in October said; “We really want to educate people as to what HS2 represents. It will destroy the countryside for no good reason. To those people who say it will be good for the economy, they said that about HS1 and look at that. It’s lost money, they’ve cut services because no-one is using it and it’s being sold off for a quarter of what it costs. HS2 will be exactly the same, but on a national scale.”

 NOTES FOR EDITORS

1. Events at Burton Green Village Hall (CV8 1PL) between 2pm and 5pm – Contact Jerry Marshall 07941 017236.
2. Stop HS2 is the national group campaigning on behalf of anti-HS2 action groups up and down the proposed route.
3. There are more local events planned for the weekend of 10^th-12^th September. This and the  itinerary (subject to change) of Lizzys’ progress along the route of HS2 can be found at www.stophs2.org and at www.walkhs2.co.uk
4. More details of the Kenilworth Greenway walk can be found at www.bgvh.org.uk (Burton Green, the destination of the walk) www.hs2cv8.co.uk (Kenilworth, for those coming from the south) and www.hhag.org.uk (Berkswell, for those coming from the north). The Kenilworth Greenway was part of the Sustrans Connect 2 network, which won lottery funding in the ITV1 ‘The People’s £50 Million’ programme in December 2007. The Burton Green section has not been surfaced due to the threat of HS2.