Farage slams HS2 plan as "unwanted" (From Bucks Free Press)

Ex-UKIP Leader Nigel Farage slams High Speed 2 project in Great Missenden

5:07pm Wednesday 13th October 2010 in News By Andy Carswell

FORMER UKIP Leader Nigel Farage today said plans for a high speed railway line through the county are “undesirable, unwanted and unloved”.

Mr Farage, one of two UKIP MEPs to represent the south east of England, slated the plans while on the campaign trail in Great Missenden this afternoon.

He was in the village to support Colonel Dennis Sluman, the party's candidate at an upcoming Chiltern District Council by-election.

Mr Farage added his was the only party opposing the proposed high speed rail line, which if given approval would cut through the Chilterns Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty near Great Missenden and tunnel underneath Amersham and the Chalfonts.

He told the Bucks Free Press: “I feel the whole project is undesirable, unwanted and unloved. It beggars belief that in the depths of a financial crisis the government should embark on spending such a large amount.

“I think it's the wrong decision, at the wrong time and in the wrong place."

Mr Farage also called for the village's MP, Cheryl Gillan, to do more to fight the planned rail link, known as HS2.

Last month an open letter from members of the Great Missenden Village Association called for Mrs Gillan to resign as a cabinet member on a point of principle over HS2 (see link to previous story, below).

“I feel a bit sorry for the voters,” said Mr Farage. “She said she would fight the thing and now she's in a cabinet position she has changed her mind.”

County party agent Chris Adams said villagers were “up in arms” over the HS2 proposals.

Mr Farage added he was confident his party could win this month's by-election.

“It's obviously a seat that's traditionally a Conservative one,” he said. “This is one of those times people will be tempted to vote in a less tribal manner.”

Mr Farage was famously in a plane crash before May's General Election in a last-ditch bid for votes on polling day when he went against House of Commons Speaker John Bercow in the Buckingham constituency.

He said: “It took me a long time to get better. I have been incredibly lucky to survive it and recover in the way I have.

“I have been back to Brussels, I have been on Question Time and now I'm back in Bucks. Expect to see more of me.”

Colonel Sluman, a former chairman of the Village Association and parish councillor who has lived in Great Missenden for 38 years, said HS2 was the key issue of the by-election.

He said: “It's a nice area. There's one good way of messing it up and we've found it. I think the majority of people in this area don't want to have a high speed rail line pushed through an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.”