OPEN Letter to the Prime Minister re proposals for the High Speed 2 rail network.

EXACTLY 12 months ago, many of your ministers including local MPs Cheryl Gillan MP and David Lidington MP were re-elected on a platform of defeating Labour’s HS2 proposals. But one year on from the election, far from ending Labour’s white elephant scheme your Government appears more determined than ever to ram it through.

As residents of the Great Missenden and Wendover area in the Chilterns AONB, which will be hewn in two by the HS2 route and devastated by the associated ‘enabling works’ we want to make it clear that our opposition is not just to the proposed route of HS2; it is to the whole HS2 project.

If HS2 were a worthwhile project we would be dismayed by the destructive local impact. Our anger stems from the fact that it is not worthwhile.

Your Transport Secretary himself has acknowledged that the business case is weak; HS2 Ltd and the Department for Transport acknowledge that it will not contribute to the reduction of carbon emissions; and the Public Accounts Committee said in November that more efficient use should be made of the existing rail network.

Please will you abandon HS2, thereby saving hundreds of millions of pounds in this Parliament.

Instead, the Government should implement the Department for Transport alternatives which deliver rail capacity and increased speed incrementally, at a fraction of the cost and with less disruption; develop Mr Hammond’s travel reduction initiative announced in September; and invest in a world class (not just ‘best in Europe’) national ultra-high-speed broadband network.

These measures together will deliver the rail capacity increases, reduction of carbon emissions, transformational benefits and connectivity the Government has promised. They would be consistent with your claim to be leading the ‘greenest Government ever’.

Shirley Judges – Chairman Great Missenden Stop HS2; Seb Berry – Chairman Great Missenden Village Association; Cllr Marion Clayton – Wendover Action Group; Dr Simon CW Hook – South Heath Action Group; Kathryn Gurney – Chiltern Ridges Action Group; Bill Munnoch – Great Missenden Stop HS2 South Heath co-ordinator; Andrew Garnett – Great Missenden Stop HS2 Prestwood co-ordinator; Mark Ladd – Little Missenden Action Group; Mel Foster - Speen Area Action Group; Roger Waller – The Dunsmore Society; Paul Francis – Chiltern Countryside Group Windsor Thomas – Chairman Cholesbury Action Group