Amersham Newsletter - May 2015
The election may be over, but the fight against HS2 is not. The vote on the Hybrid Bill is a year away and (as John Major discovered) a slender majority emboldens rebellion in the ranks. Ed Miliband was seen as a main pillar of Labour’s support for HS2 and presumably Ed Balls has not left a blank cheque behind. HS2 is also back in the news. So it’s very much business as usual for the campaign.
SELECT COMMITTEE VISIT POSTPONED
The visit of the HS2 Select Committee (SC) to Buckinghamshire and the Chilterns, scheduled for 20 – 22nd May, has been postponed. This is because the new balance of MPs at Westminster calls for changes to the membership of the committee. The LibDem member was not re-elected and an SNP member must now be included. The Labour membership may also change. Our local Action Groups are working together to prepare for the visit, to ensure that committee members are left in no doubt of the many impacts that HS2 would have on this area.
PETITION HEARINGS
It is usual for SC visits to be made before petitions from the relevant areas are heard. It is thought possible that the reconvened Select Committee may begin hearing petitions from Buckinghamshire on 20th July. We would expect these to begin with representation from the major councils and the Chilterns Conservation Board. Traditionally, this date is very close to the start of parliament’s summer recess – but the date for the 2015 recess has yet to be published. Were the hearings to start on 20th, it is unclear how many could be fitted in before the house rises. We will contact you with more information for petitioners when the timetable is announced.
TIME TO BUY THE T-SHIRT
The Select Committee visit will be the time for campaign supporters to turn out and reinforce our demand for tunnelling through the Chilterns, should HS2 go ahead. Our specially-commissioned T-shirts get the message across, swiftly and with style. These chic T-shirts are black with HS2? BURY IT! in bold white on the front. They come in all men’s sizes from S – XXL and cost £8 each. They can be ordered by email from stan.m@virgin.net or by phone from 01494 433376/07788 143540. Collection is from Wielden Street in Old Amersham. Please hurry while stocks last!!
IN THE MEDIA NOW: HS2 or HS3?
As George Osborne reaffirms his commitment to the northern powerhouse, the issue of HS2 vs HS3 is reignited in the media. An article in The Guardian of 14th May (“Ex-Goldman Sachs man talks sense on HS2”) includes the following passages, quoted here as they make interesting reading:
Jim O’Neill, former chief economist of Goldman Sachs, is to be made a peer and become the Treasury’s man for the northern powerhouse. O’Neill holds one refreshingly off-message view. He’s a sceptic on HS2. “I’d put it down as a nice luxury,” O’Neill told the Observer last year. “It’s not obvious to me that it’s going to be useful to the north or the Midlands because all it guarantees is that people can get to London quicker than they can now.”
He has argued that the government’s focus should be on building a cutting-edge transport network between cities such as Liverpool, Manchester, Sheffield and Leeds. “It’s like creating the equivalent of a tube system. That’s way more valuable to the country,” he told the Manchester Evening News last year. Listen carefully and you can hear similar muttering in the boardrooms of major companies. As one FTSE 100 chief executive confided recently, what’s the point of getting from London to Manchester a little quicker if you actually want to go to Rochdale and are obliged to travel at a snail’s pace on the last leg of your journey? It’s a question of directing the cash to places where it will make most difference. HS2, it is feared, will suck money from small transport projects with direct economic benefits.
The Institute of Directors was a vocal and early opponent of HS2. A “grand folly”, it said, after finding in 2013 that little more than a quarter of its members believed the railway would provide value for money. Perhaps a dose of scepticism on HS2 sounds more persuasive in Goldmanese. Perhaps O’Neill is the man who can provide the political space to allow the government to retreat from its obsession. If so, we should cheer.
The STOP HS2 website (stophs2.org) also reports that …
“A number of different commentators have pointed out that sorting out these east-west links is of much higher priority than HS2.” It adds: “Just a couple of weeks ago, a poll taken by Insider Media at their Northern Powerhouse conference found that the attendees thought HS3 should be built before HS2 by a ratio of 14-1. However, a separate poll of delegates found unanimous support for the concept of the Northern Powerhouse, which George Osborne has said is vital in order to rebalance the economy with transport being identified as a number one priority.”
FROM THE CONSERVATIVE MANIFESTO …
Speaking after the election, Rt Hon Cheryl Gillan, MP for Chesham & Amersham, pointed out that although it includes HS2, the Conservative Manifesto also makes this specific pledge: “We will protect the Green Belt, and maintain national protections for Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty, National Parks, Sites of Special Scientific Interests and other environmental designations.” She says: “I will be taking steps to seek to ensure The Conservative Government maintains our manifesto promise in this area. In the Chilterns we will continue to push for the Government and HS2 Ltd to accept the long tunnel proposals in order to protect the AONB.”
THANK YOU
Thanks go to all local groups and individuals who brought together the well-attended Tunnel Vision exhibition held in Amersham Free Church Hall on 11th April. Initiated and co-ordinated by the HS2 Amersham Action Group, the exhibition presented details of three tunnelling options for the Chilterns, commissioned respectively by Chiltern District Council with Bucks CC, Aylesbury Vale DC and the Chilterns Conservation Board, by the South Heath / Potter Row Residents Environmental Protection Association and CRAG – the Chiltern Ridges Action Group.