Council leader writes open letter to residents over HS2
The announcement by Justine Greening of the Coalition Government’s decision to go ahead with HS2 is clearly disappointing if not unexpected. While we may have lost a battle, we are far from losing the campaign and I am determined that we redouble our efforts to stop this ill-conceived project.
Our opponents have tried to stereotype those who oppose HS2 as ‘Chiltern NIMBYs’. I, by contrast, see us as the people right across this country who have had cause to analyse this proposal and who see it for what it actually is, a vast waste of hard-earned taxpayers’ money combined with environmental vandalism on an almost unprecedented scale.
The Government’s ‘spin machine’ has been in overdrive during the announcement with, no doubt coincidentally-leaked reports, and attempts to conceal the facts. A thorough analysis of the government’s material has now shown some damning conclusions.
The business case for HS2, already poor, has become far, far worse. The published Benefit Cost Ratio for the London to Birmingham section has declined from a predicted 2.7 return for every pound spent in March 2010, to 1.7 in 2012. Far worse, when the figures are adjusted for known risks buried deep in the report, such as the latest economic forecasts, updated forecasting methods and a more realistic value of the time saved by passengers, the return drops as low as a dire 90p for every pound. In other words, HS2 actually loses the hard-pressed taxpayer 10p for every one of the £32 billion spent on it. This is well below the threshold that the Department for Transport would normally allow for any project. No wonder the government tried to ‘bury bad news’.
By contrast, the government’s own consultants show the alternative put forward by the 51m Alliance of 18 local authorities opposed to HS2 of improving our existing lines at far lower cost, has a Benefit Cost Ratio of 5, delivering £5 for every taxpayers’ pound invested. No wonder the government tried so hard to discredit this far better option.
The Government has ignored the vast response to its own public consultation. 55,000 people across the country responded to this. Compare that to the 7,000 who replied to the public consultation last year on the proposed sale of the National Forests which led to a rapid U-turn. Despite Philip Hammond’s desperate attempts to drum up support by everyone from northern businessmen to Bob Crow’s railwaymen, the Government’s case was decisively rejected in every one of the seven consultation questions. These responses have been completely ignored despite a dire business case. This discredits the entire consultation process.
So what can we do now? Plenty. As 51m, your local councils are considering legal action against this scheme. In addition, it will be 2013 before a bill is introduced to Parliament for the London to Birmingham section of HS2. This gives us more than a year to spread the key messages nationally that this project represents even more appalling waste of taxpayers’ money than we had originally thought; that it will result in environmental damage along its entire route; that building it would cause enormous disruption to services into Euston station for eight years and finally, that a far, far better alternative exists which has been all but ignored.
As the 51m Alliance we pledge to continue to support the residents of Buckinghamshire.
Martin Tett, leader of Bucks County Council
>> What do you think? Sound off below. See this week’s Advertiser and Review for more letters, out on Friday.
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Comments
There are 3 comments to this article
Page 1 of 1
Coolidge
Wednesday, January 25, 2012 at 10:25 PMAnd what Mr Hammond also said on numerous occasions whilst he was at the DOT is that there isn't a large pot of 32 billion quid sitting there to spend on whatever we want. "kingsnewclothes" needs to look up the word "investment", as in "putting money into something with the expectation of gain", and stop blubbing about it. Martin Tett is a jumped-up idiot who should stick to his council job of worrying about when the bins are going to be emptied etc, and not be wasting tax-payers money on fighting government policy which is supported by all 3 major political parties, business leaders *and* the trade unions, just because of nothing but nimbyism.
kingsnewclothes
Wednesday, January 25, 2012 at 05:56 PMThe bigger waste of money is the £ 36 Billion that the Government wants to spend on the scheme. Especially now that Public Debt has topped £ 1 Trillion. Just this morning we had good old Phillip Hammond on the radio defending himself against a charge of "grotesque armed forces spending cuts". He said that the nation had to live within its "budget enveloppe". Pity he didn't have the same view when he was at the DOT. .................... A couple of hundred thousand £s by comparison is very small beer, I will happily chip in my little bit and I expect thousands more will as well. It's a tough battle but well worth a go and a long way from being futile.
Padav
Wednesday, January 25, 2012 at 01:18 PMWhat do I think? - This is another example of wishful thinking on the part of Councillor Tett, who is now intent on raising funds for a futile legal challenge the Minister's decision via the courts, thus chucking good money after bad but that's OK, this is bound to be a good investment, even though the only people getting rich will be the lawyers pursuing a fatally flawed legal case. This strategy will only prolong uncertainty for those impacted adversely by the construction of HS2, who would be best served by those representing them lobbying for the strongest possible mitigation measures rather than holding out the possibility of frustrating HS2 only to dash those hopes later on - it's only a suggestion Councillor Tett but maybe it might be more productive to engage in constructive dialogue with HS2 Ltd?
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