A council leader has slammed the Government’s “insultingly low” cash offer intended to help communities blighted by a controversial rail project – and plans to challenge it at the House of Lords next week.

In the same week transport secretary Chris Grayling said the case for HS2 is “stronger than ever” it was announced £15 million would be split between five counties to reduce the impact the rail link has on communities.

However leader of Bucks County Council, councillor Martin Tett, has said the money would have “virtually no impact” and plans to challenge the offer at the Lords High Speed Rail select committee on Monday, October 24.

Anti-HS2 campaigners have previously called for the project – which will links trains from London to the north - to be scrapped, questioning its effectiveness, cost and impact on neighbours.

The cash – which is taken from the Community and Environment fund – is intended to enhance community facilities, improve access to the countryside and protect the environment along the route of HS2.

However cllr Tett has said Buckinghamshire alone already has a list of community projects which total up to more than £20 million.

He said: “The announcement is terribly disappointing and implies that the Government just hasn’t grasped the sheer scale of the disruption HS2 will cause to people’s lives and businesses in Buckinghamshire.

“HS2 is a £55 billion project which has already spent £2bn even before a single length of track has been laid. The allocation of £15 million in an area in which around two-thirds of the length of phase one will be laid is insultingly low and wholly inadequate.

"When taken in the context of the misery HS2’s construction will cause residents over a ten year period, this amount really is peanuts. It will have virtually no impact.

“I am also concerned that this fund will be centrally administered – local people are best placed to decide where the money is spent.”

The Lords committee can make recommendations to HS2 Ltd for extra cash for communities who are likely to be affected by the rail line to ease the impact it has.

Cllr Tett also plans to call for more money towards the Iver relief road, the relocation of the Great Missenden Haul Road further north, better mitigation for Wendover and a co-ordinated plan to make sure HS2 does not adversely affect the proposed East West rail line in Calvert.

The other counties set to receive the money are Staffordshire, Warwickshire, Oxfordshire and Northamptonshire.