HUMAN rights laws are being 'unlawfully interfered' with because a compensation scheme for a high speed rail link is 'inadequate', campaigners said this week.

Residents of the Chiltern district were among those to be asked for their views on the planned High Speed 2 rail project, which would create a 250mph route between London and Birmingham.

Some people are entitled to compensation under an 'Exceptional Hardship Scheme' launched by the Department for Transport earlier this year.

But members of the HS2 Action Alliance group, set up to campaign against the plans, said not enough people are entitled to compensation – which it says contravenes the European Convention on Human Rights.

In its response to the Department for Transport about the proposals, the Alliance said: “Individuals have the right to respect for their homes, and to the peaceful enjoyment of their property.

“Although these rights can be limited where it is necessary and proportionate to do so in the wider public interest, interference with these rights is disproportionate and unlawful if some individuals are required to bear a particular, excessive and unjustifiable burden on behalf of the wider community, without payment of compensation which fairly reflects past and future loss of amenity, past and future loss of use, and loss of capital value.

“Where, as here, a compensation scheme is proposed, it is implicit that it should be fair and rational.”

Thousands of people took part in a consultation on the Action Alliance's website, with hundreds of campaign forms being delivered to the offices of HS2 Ltd, a company set up when the scheme was first announced.

Last week Speaker of the House of Commons John Bercow spoke of his opposition to the plans at a summit meeting in Aylesbury on Friday.

If given the go-ahead the line would run through the Chilterns Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and tunnel underneath Amersham and the Chalfonts.

The Buckingham MP said he would do everything he could to stop the project going ahead.

He said at the meeting: “I can't promise I can get this reversed, but I can promise to do my level best. Just try and stop me.”