MP calls for Commons debate on Bucks high speed train plan

9:42am Wednesday 17th March 2010

By Oliver Evans

A BUCKINGHAMSHIRE MP is calling for a Commons debate on how a high speed train plan will affect the county.

Aylesbury MP David Lidington wants an adjournment debate, which would last 30 minutes.

There was shock last week when the Government announced plans for a new line that would tunnel under the Chalfonts and Amersham and run overground by the Missendens.

The move will be consulted on. The Government says an alternative route would go under Gerrards Cross and Hazlemere and overground at Hughenden.

Mr Lidington said: “There are always more requests for such debates than slots available and I’ll know later this week whether I have been successful in the ballot.”

He has also put down four written questions to the Department of Transport and said he is ‘very willing to take up questions that constituents would like asked’.

The first question asks what discussions the Government has had ‘about the impact of his preferred route’ on housing plans for the Aylesbury area.

The second asks how many business premises are within 500 metres of the preferred route.

The final questions asks whether the Government should ensure High Speed 2, the company it formed to take forward the plan, will ‘respond to requests for information from members of the public with at least as much openness as would be required if the company were a public authority as defined by the Freedom of Information Act’.

Questions from the public must ask for information or policy and ‘hypothetical’ questions will not be allowed, he said (see link below for full question details).

The hamlets of Hyde Heath and South Heath, north of Great Missenden, are amongst those affected by the proposed line.

Click the link at the bottom of this story for our stories on the scheme and maps of the two possible routes.

Edward Ward, 39, lives off Chesham Road, near South Heath and said: “I actually felt physically sick when I heard the news.

“I’m unemployed so money is a worry and now I can’t relocate to find a job.

“We are not even allowed to put up a shed or a greenhouse because the land is considered to be so beautiful and this could go slap bang through the middle of pristine countryside – it’s extraordinary.”

His neighbour Roy Hussain, 46, said: “Obviously it’s right on our doorstep so it’s a bit disturbing. It’s going to have a huge impact on house prices and generally we feel that someone’s just drawn a straight line across the map.”

Geoffrey Sheraton, 53, lives on Frith Hill, South Heath and said: “Some rude words come to mind and obviously everyone will be concerned about it.

“It’s difficult to say if we need High Speed rail – it doesn’t stop here so it’s not going to be much use to me is it?”

Lia Macdonald, 44, lives off Chalk Lane, Hyde Heath, and the proposed route would tunnel underneath her property.

She said: “We are limited in what we are allowed to do here in terms of building work and that’s what keeps it a beautiful place to live. How can they say that and then dig a big trench through an area of outstanding natural beauty?”

Malcolm Bristow, 69, lives on King’s Lane, near South Heath and the planned route goes through his fields. He said: “Hopefully I’ll be dead and gone if it ever happens.

“Let’s get our priorities in order, the country is bust as it is and this is absolutely crazy.”

Next door neighbour John Perrin, 72, would also be forced to sell fields and said: “I’m just gutted and it will be horrifying if it happens.