The committee of MPs hearing evidence on the proposed HS2 railway line are due to visit Buckinghamshire in May, according to an MP.

Chesham and Amersham MP Cheryl Gillan said this week members of the HS2 select committee are likely to make a site visit to the county shortly after the General Election.

Committee members have visited several other sites affected by the route of the line as part of the project's 'petitioning' process, which allows residents to raise concerns about the scheme.

Mrs Gillan was speaking at the launch of a new report which said it was more viable for HS2 to pass through the whole of the Chilterns Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty in a tunnel, rather than just part of it, as is currently proposed.

Speaking to the Bucks Free Press about the report, the former Welsh Secretary said: "I think what we've come up with is a local solution to what's a national problem. If you are going to damage a nationally designated Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, I think you've got to have some pretty good reasons.

"We've given HS2 Ltd and the Department for Transport some pretty good reasons for adopting the highly sophisticated engineering solution we've put forward.

"It would be better, if this railway goes ahead, if this scheme is adopted. The current proposals involve an almost impossible gradient and some pretty horrendous surface works, and the solution put forward today avoids that.

"I hope those officials and civil servants and people who work for HS2 Ltd will see the merit in these proposals as well, and I will be encouraging them to do so."

Mrs Gillan added: "I am going to walk the course - not literally - through my constituency to look at the sights and see where I want to stop the bus and tell them about points of interest.

Representatives from local authorities and conservation groups in the county are likely be called to give evidence in July at the earliest, it was said at Thursday's report launch.