Back in March, when the HS2 Hybrid Bill Committee published their First Special Report their assumption was that the committee would be unchanged, with the document saying:
The carry-over motions provide that a successor committee will, by default (that is, if we are all re-elected), have the same membership. We are each standing for re-election. We believed it would be useful to publish this report so that our successor committee’s members might benefit from our reflections on progress and evidence to date.
But a recent comment from David Lidington, MP for Aylesbury, suggests that the committee’s changes may include replacing some of the Labour members of the committee as well as replacing Mike Thornton, the LibDem who lost his seat.
Lidington said, in a press release about the postponement of the committee’s visit to Buckinghamshire:
“ Following the postponement, I subsequently spoke to the Committee Chairman, Robert Syms MP. The reason for the postponement is that there are likely to be changes to the Committee’s membership. The Liberal Democrat member was not re-elected. The new parliamentary arithmetic will probably mean the appointment of an SNP member and I gather that the Labour membership may also change.”
As more intrusions and details are released please respond to proposals with your true feelings to HS2 and DFT and your MP. Aarhus Convention breaches are alleged as most were unprepared and not supported to contemplate the degradation relating to the environment. Do not rely on others rely on yourselves. Advise DFT HS2 timely and complain to the Parliamentary Ombudsman when you consider that your interests are not being included.