High Speed Train Latest

Extract from County Councillor Avril Davies' July Newsletter concerning route of High Speed rail link through Cheddington. (Full newsletter can be accessed from 'County Councillor' page under 'Council'):

Back in April Bucks County Council stated their preferred alternative route for HS2 was along the West Coast Main Line. They weren't too clear whether they meant upgrading the existing line, or following one of the HS2 alternative routes that swept through Pitstone Green business park and on to Cheddington. Either proposal was equally unacceptable to me and I proposed, and lost, an amendment to a motion at the County Council requesting that this preference be deleted from their submission to HS2 and that all routes through the Chilterns AONB be opposed equally. After the discussion several Aylesbury Vale Conservative Councillors told me they supported me but had not been able to vote for me on party lines.

Many people have subsequently pressed the County Council to come round to this view, including our MP, the Chilterns Conservation Board, and local individuals. At a meeting in July with the cabinet member for transportation Val Letheren, hinted to me that the County were now re-considering their position as expressing a preferred alternative could weaken their overall case - exactly the point I made at Council.

My opinion is that the West Coast Mail line option is so impracticable and expensive it was rightly discarded in the first place by HS2 as a viable alternative; but that the County Council should not have suggested damaging one part of the County in order to protect another 'more valuable' part. Val Letheren in debate said that 'their' Chilterns AONB was 'more valuable' than 'ours'.

The government are currently reviewing the whole thing to see if it can link in Heathrow Airport .

Published: 17 July 2010 (updated 17/07/2010)