Major A&E ambulance routes could be severely disrupted if the “nightmare” of HS2 trucks gridlocking south Buckinghamshire roads becomes a reality, campaigners have warned.

Anti-HS2 protestors claimed a “partial victory” this week when it was announced that the unwanted vehicles would not be allowed to plough through West Wycombe, but the use of key ambulance routes from High Wycombe to Stoke Mandeville Hospital remains a possibility.

The concerns have been raised by councillors and worried residents in the same week Aylesbury MP David Lidington wrote to the Bucks Free Press declaring that a one-way tunnel could be the answer to easing construction traffic fears.

West Wycombe Parish Council chairman, Vicki Smith, said: “It is a great concern to all of us and obviously to put HS2 construction traffic on it would be a nightmare for everyone.

“We have a small ambulance here in West Wycombe and they mostly have to use blue lights and sirens just to get through the busy traffic we have here anyway, so adding even more traffic to it would be a nightmare.

“We hope we’ve done as much as we can to persuade the HS2 Select Committee to do it without bringing it this way, but the negative of that if it doesn’t come through here it will have to go through another community who will fear for it like we do.”

Ambulances taking people from High Wycombe to the nearest accident and emergency department, in Stoke Mandeville, regularly use the West Wycombe Road before taking the A4010.

Bucks Free Press:

And councillors say more work remains to be done to either stop or mitigate the impact of HS2’ s proposals to use the A4010 or the A4129 for the high volumes of HS2 construction traffic heading towards the M40.

There are similar concerns across the county, with a member of the HS2 Action Alliance confirming people in the Chilterns and Great Missenden are worried about the implications of traffic on routes on the A413.

Hilary Wharf, of HS2 Action Alliance, said: “A lot of people are enormously concerned about what is going to happen to the ambulance services because many are elderly and many require those services frequently.

And it is an issue people seem not to be taking it seriously. It is an issue all the way across the county.”

Wycombe MP Steve Baker added that everything will be done to ensure ambulances can proceed unimpeded.

South Central Ambulance Service spokesman, David Gallagher, said: “South Central Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust will work closely with HS2 Limited and other agencies involved in the construction of the proposed HS2 high speed rail link.”