CONSERVATIVE PARTY SUPPORTER WHO MP SAID ‘WELCOMED’ HS2 ROUTE CHANGES, SAYS HE DOESN’T
Following the announcement from HS2 Ltd that they were ‘refining the route’ of the high speed rail link from Birmingham to London, a man who was personally telephoned by Kenilworth & Southam MP, Jeremy Wright, with the ‘good news’ wants to distance himself from the assertion that “Residents in Warwickshire welcomed the news”.
The Kenilworth Stop HS2 Action Group happened to be holding a public meeting less than three hours after the proposed route realignment was announced, and Richard Kenyon was the first member of the public to speak after the presentation on Wednesday night saying; “I should be celebrating tonight, as HS2 has moved from 100 yards away from my house to 400 yards away, but I’m not because I’ve looked into the proposal and it should be stopped, full stop”.
After the meeting, Kenyon emailed Jeremy Wright MP stating;
“It was good of you to call Jan [his wife] this afternoon to tell us of the change of proposed route for HS2. However, you should be under no illusion that we have any great pleasure in the announcement. I trust that in your press release reported on the BBC website you do not include us as among those being pleased by the announcement. I consider that the Government has made the proposed change to try to divert attention and opponents’ energy from the real issue, namely that the proposal is so unrealistic that it should be scrapped. As I have told you before, my support for the party has waned and will wane still further if there is no announcement that a proper review of the project is undertaken.”
“At a meeting in Kenilworth this evening I was pleased to hear that you had arranged some meetings to discuss the HS2 project. During the meeting there was a strong feeling that the Ministry had been told by the Government to “get on with this project”. If this is correct I find the Government’s attitude quite unsupportable.”
Joe Rukin, the chair of the Kenilworth Stop HS2 Action Group said;
“We can’t quite understand how the MP for Kenilworth and Southam is saying his constituents welcome these proposed changes, when they mean taking HS2 closer to both Kenilworth and Southam. They also take the railway closer to Cubbington, which is the next biggest place in the constituency. In the case of what is proposed for Burton Green with cut and cover, it’s laughable. HS2 Ltd are more or less saying that they’ll drop the line and build a park on top of it, as there will be loads of room for a park after they still demolish all the houses during the construction phase. Maybe they won’t demolish the hamlet of Stareton, and the villages of Stoneleigh and Ladbroke are slightly better off, but more people are affected, and going through the Royal Showground will affect more businesses and hundreds more jobs, which we know already that HS2 Ltd won’t take into account when they say how good for business the rail link is.”
“The whole thing stinks, and it seems more than a coincidence that it was only revealed on Tuesday, the day before this realignment was announced, that the Conservative County Council Cabinet will vote to scrap plans for the ‘Connect 2’ Kenilworth Greenway project, a cyclepath that gets in the way of HS2, this Thursday [today].”
“The bottom line is that it doesn’t matter what the route of HS2 is, there is no business case, there is no environmental case, and there is no money to pay for it.”
NOTES FOR EDITORS
- Contact Joe Rukin on 07811 371880 for more information.
- BBC, High-speed route in Warwickshire ‘revised’, says MP http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-11234890