Forthcoming Phase 2 Consultation Events

1. These consultations are almost always just a box ticking sham.

2. If the govenment was serious about our countryside and wildlife and theysay speed is not the main reason for hs2 .Then why not build it along our motorway corridor .Mr Osbourne says our railways are full and we need hs2 but why can he have the track bend around where he lives ? it seems one law for them and another law for us the poor ,we must bow down and touch our forelock like our Victoria cousins after all they keep saying we must accept like the Victorians did when the built there railways so shut up and put up we no best . We are going to build it no matter at what ever the cost even if we loose the next general election this must go forward so we can say our govenment built it

3. well done Cll Birchley and the community at Little Kingshill.
   The pall bearers and Chiltern AONB coffin was a microdramatic representation.
   The hissy fit behaviour of the HS2 ltd team was a national drama played out for all to see, arrogant, rude and as ever no answers to serious questions and yes EU/Govt box ticking exercises.

   It is quite correct the AONB is used/visited by more people than use the Lake District and produces revenue/tourism for the shires within the AONB.
   These losses have not been addressed, nor the value of the damage to the AONB although this was supposedly govt pollicy for all such developmental schemes. HS2 ltd refused to quantify this value.

   No contigent valuation has been made of the damage that HS2 will cause to the Chilterns AONB. Such a financial valuation should be made under best practice in order to make an appraisal of the scheme.

   These matters arise as the Government is presented with more information about the value of nature and protected environments
   The State of Natural Capital Report:
   “Natural capital assets are in decline and should be measured. Changes in natural capital should be included in national and corporate accounts, properly valued and those values effectively included in decision-making processes. Stewardship of natural capital is good for growth”. The State of Nature Report (TSNR) offers clues to the fate of the UK’s 59,000 species. 70 % in decline. On a day when it is reported that native flora and fauna are under threat and there is a decline in biodiversity habitats it is extra=ordinary that the Govt. .endorsed HS2 threatens so much.

   I raised this in my submission to the Paving Bill committee.
   Perhaps we should ask our MPs to raise it directly in the House.

   The news that HS2 ltd are planning to “to contract firms together at the outset of the £42.6bn scheme, rather than procure work “sequentially when it is needed” suggests to me that this is a strategy to cement contracts in anticipation in a hope that it consolidates the project ( and promises work) and themselves as managers to be used as part of the propaganda mill this occurring ahead of Parliamentary scrutiny and debate on the plan that is not a plan as
   yet in the eyes of the law.

   • Is the idea of contracting all the work at the start of the scheme perhaps a way of making it too costly to cancel? Going back a some years to the BNRR/M6 Toll, when the Labour Party was in opposition they were against the scheme but when they came to power in 1997 they didn’t cancel it claiming that the legal agreement that had been made with the operators made it too costly for the government to cancel due to penalty clauses. I can see the same thing happening again (if HS2 gets that far).

     Doing the contracting work all in one go at the start is going to make it more expensive. Having to plan longer ahead means contractors will have to add more in for contingencies. Meanwhile we have seen companies walk away from contracts when things have gone too expensive, so I doubt if there is any benefit gained to balance to downsides.

     • The notion that this would make it too costly to cancel (penalties etc) is exactly what concerned me.
       Especially when the project has yet to have parliamentary discussion and is a legally only a plan…….one that could attract penalties if it does not progress.
       Perhaps some of this strategy and the recently revealed wild life and excavation material dumping in the AONB will be useful when the environmental aspects of the case goes to Supreme Court.

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