Announcement from Rob Butler regarding scrapping of Phase 2 of HS2

Following the Prime Minister’s announcement that Phase 2 of HS2 is to be scrapped, Rob Butler, MP for Aylesbury said:

“I’ve opposed HS2 for years, stating from the very beginning of my election campaign that we didn’t need this railway. It made no sense economically and it made no sense environmentally. It’s right that at last this project has been scrapped, but it is a bittersweet moment here in Bucks, because for us, the damage has already been done. The construction of the line between London and Birmingham is unfortunately still going ahead, causing massive disruption to our day-to-day lives, and wreaking destruction across our landscape. Yet there’s absolutely no benefit for local residents; there never has been, there never will be. I’ll be calling on the Government to devote some of the savings from scrapping Phase 2 of HS2 into improving transport here in the Aylesbury area, because it’s fundamentally wrong for local people to be forced to continue to suffer for a project they knew was a white elephant all along.”