HS2 consultation extended after Chiltern Society intervention

The deadline for a public consultation on additional HS2 environmental statements has been extended after the Chiltern Society highlighted basic errors in the reports.

The Society, a conservation group, enacted a special Parliamentary procedure to point out the errors.

Chiltern Society trustee John Gladwin presented a Parliamentary Memorial to a Board of Examiners, representing law-makers in Parliament. The examiners agreed that incorrect data had been used as part of traffic assessments HS2 made when looking at the impact construction lorries will make on various road junctions in the Chilterns while the planned railway is being built.

Subsequently HS2 amended the figures and the consultations on the relevant documents – Supplementary Environmental Statement 3 and Additional Provision 4 of the Environmental Statement. The consultation was extended by a month to 23 December, with new data included, to enable members of the public to put their views forward based on revisions.

Mr Gladwin said: “The details showed that some important junctions in South Bucks had not been included and in others the data was clearly incorrect. For instance, HS2 identified there would be major congestion at the London End junction with the A 355 at Beaconsfield but gave no figures regarding the next major junction where the A355 meets with the A413 at Gore Hill in Amersham. .

When the public are invited to give their views on an important consultation like HS2 they have the right to expect that the basic information supplied for them to make a judgement upon is correct. This has all the hallmarks of a rushed consultation and a rushed job. Thousands of people who live and work in the Chilterns will be detrimentally affected by the construction impacts of HS2 if it goes ahead. At the very least they should be accurately informed about what’s coming.”