A DATE has been set for the Supreme Court appeal against HS2.

Chiltern District Council Leader Nick Rose revealed at yesterday's meeting of the authority's cabinet the case would go to Britain's highest law court on October 15 and 16.

Campaigners failed at an earlier Court of Appeal hearing to have the decision to proceed with the controversial project re-examined.

They were however given leave to appeal to the Supreme Court, and a date has now been set for that hearing.

Cllr Rose said at Tuesday's meeting: "We are working on many aspects, not least preparing for various petitioning aspects because of the inadequacy of HS2 Ltd's information so far."

Court of Appeal judges gave the campaign groups permission to appeal on the grounds of a lack of a Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA), saying this should have been undertaken before a decision was made to proceed with HS2 in January 2012.

At July's judgement hearing Judge Lord Justice Sullivan said: "If, as I have concluded, an SEA is required and there has not been substantial compliance with the SEA Directive, it would be difficult to think of a more egregious breach of the Directive given the scale of the HS2 project and the likely extent of its effects on the environment."

Chiltern District Council are one of three local authorities who will be contributing towards the cost of the appeal hearing, with the money coming from their reserves.

The London Borough of Hillingdon and North Warwickshire Borough Council are also helping to foot the bill.

Buckinghamshire County Council announced earlier this month it would contribute £10,000 towards the Amersham-based HS2 Action Alliance's legal fund for the hearing.

County Leader Martin Tett said: "As the Court of Appeal has given us leave to appeal to the Supreme Court we believe that there is an excellent chance that this appeal will be successful."