Charity labels new High Speed 2 consultation a train wreck

28 February 2011

Countryside champions, the Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE) have labelled the consultation process for High Speed 2 announced today [Monday] as a complete train wreck. The charity describes the consultation as a head-on collision between Government plans to develop national infrastructure and its proposals to give power back to people.

Ralph Smyth, Senior Transport Campaigner at CPRE, says: “The Government has been so focused on trying to catch up and overtake the French on High Speed Rail, that they have failed to ensure the public get their fair say.

“In France a recent law requires genuine public debate throughout the whole process of planning new lines, a system that is fit for the 21st century. But in Britain we are stuck with something that belongs in the Victorian era: a take it or leave it consultation into a single route option, which the Government has already made up its mind to favour. This will be followed by a parliamentary petitioning procedure that has changed little since the days of 19th century railway barons.”

CPRE is strongly in favour of increased rail investment and believes that new lines are likely to be needed as well as electrification and signal upgrades. It has, however, been warning the Government since its election that it needed to change track on High Speed 2 (HS2). Otherwise the welcome vision for rail to be the transport mode of choice risks being derailed by public concern about the impacts of the very high speed HS2 proposal. In December CPRE presented ministers with research into best practice in other countries that showed the proposed 250mph top speed for HS2 was inappropriate.

The charity now believes that HS2 consultation process is so flawed that it breaches international environmental law. In particular the Aarhus Convention creates a public right of participation into decisions that have a major impact on the environment, at a time when all options are open and when effective public participation can still take place.

Ralph Smyth concludes: “Instead of a Punch and Judy exchange of competing claims between pros and antis, the country needs a fair, open and informed debate about high speed rail. This is the perfect opportunity for the Government to introduce a modern system to enable public participation throughout the planning of big infrastructure proposals.”

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