Following the acceptance of an amendment to the Phase 2a Hybrid Bill proposed by the House of Lords, HS2 has started a consultation process with the residents of Staffordshire, Shropshire and Cheshire regarding road traffic, ancient woodland, rail connectivity to HS2 and the reopening of railway stations. Although we have considerable concerns about the form of the consultation and specifically HS2 Ltd’s admission that the “Government does not intend to make changes to the Phase 2a scheme or its planned construction programme in light of this consultation”, we would encourage all residents to complete the survey online via this link.
Although the survey comprises 20 pages, feedback relating to the HS2 proposals is covered by Questions A to D.
All of these questions ask respondents to tick a box regarding which of the five sections of the Phase 2a route, known as community areas, your comments refer to, i.e. in the case of residents of Stone and the surrounding area, you should tick the CA3 Stone and Swynnerton box. Alternatively you could comment about the entire route or bizarrely another area that does not form part of Phase 2a. You are then invited to provide free text comments in the box provided.
SRCG will be providing further guidance regarding the four questions soon, so please watch this space.
You should also be aware that we are lobbying local MPs about HS2 Ltd’s deeply flawed approach to this consultation and will provide further feedback on the outcomes of this initiative in due course.
