Earlier this month Alastair Humphreys and Ben Fogle filmed at Hillingdon Outdoor Activities Centre. Alastair Humphreys is an author, motivational speaker, film maker and 2012 National Geographic Adventurer of the Year. In response to the distraction that will be caused to HOAC if HS2 goes ahead he wrote about on his blog.
Here are some extracts:
“I believe that it is especially important to preserve the few remaining urban wild areas. And I believe that young people growing up in cities can benefit so much from these wild places, and from learning adventurous skills in those wild places.
“…yesterday I spent a day doing some film work with Ben Fogle at the Hillingdon Outdoors Activities Centre. Tucked inside the M25, I discovered a magical oasis of wilderness. We walked through woodland and maize fields. We mountain biked up and down fantastic singletrack trails. We canoed past herons and kingfishers as shoals of fish darted through the clean water beneath us. We climbed to the top of a superb climbing wall and looked out over green trees in every direction….”
“… But now I really am annoyed.
“Closing Hillingdon Outdoors Activities Centre and concreting over this wonderful wild urban oasis is a terrible thing to do. For that reason today I wanted to highlight the great work the centre is doing and the Stop HS2 website.”
Thank you very much, Alastair, for highlighting the issue of HS2 and we really recommend looking at the whole post on his blog and exploring the rest of his website.
The UK and Britain are not progressing as required to match population and population demands. Whether it is the village lanes the towns T junctions or the cities ring road the UK has stagnated. Politics for politicians dominated the Coalition and the protective measures for Tory areas along the WCML are emerging with the maybe future Crossrail 2 including the section to Tring to take train paths from WCML. Seems that the WCML route and not HS2 Route 3 phase 1 should also have been the alignment.
Well Coalition MPs did not understand realistic project delivery with so many false starts and wrong steps across a number of sectors. A number of ODD fellows have emerged with grandiose but poorly designed schemes not just HS2. Was Hammond wrong to say to the Transport Select Committee after Crossrail 1 HS2 gets the £2B per year with Crossrail 2 now requiring a similar £2B per year. Is this then £4B. The Coalition has not made Britain Better for many people and for many children and youths.
MPs can no longer consider their period in Government with outgoing failures and extreme legacies on national debt is acceptable. Time to vote to change the very nature of Government with dysfunctional sections and incompetent MPs and senior civil servants. The time for change was a decade ago and please no more ODD fellows. HS2 needs to pause and become realistic to be within the economic means not a future debt burden. No Boris no Dave by George no Nigel and which Ed. Celeb ODD MPs don’t work well.
Grebe Lake, home of Great Moor Sailing Club, another wonderful inland place for sailing for all ages, will have to contend with HS2 and its maintenance depot. It is a miserable prospect that the peace and tranquility of these wonderful recreational facilities will be lost.