HS2 Update – January 2018

On Monday 27 November WPC HS2 team of myself, Dave Ball, Bob Lewis, Michael Byng (costing expert) and Murray Stewart (lobbyist) had a meeting with Sir John Randell in 10 Downing St.

Sir John is a former MP for Uxbridge, a passionate champion for the Chilterns and he now works on the Policy side of No 10. He is opposed to HS2 in principle.

We went over our Cheaper, Quicker, Simpler option of a mined tunnel for Wendover. We ran through the noise, hydrogeology, environment and farming problems and the impact construction will have on our community and explained how our mined tunnel proposal will mitigate them. We also gave him an understanding of HS2 Ltd’s and the DfT’s stubborn resistance to our proposal.

We were well received. Sir John is a good listener and showed an understanding of the situation. He left me with the feeling that he will start to carefully influence his colleagues to try to gain support for our objectives.

This is now a high level game. In the last few weeks Wendover’s proposal for a mined tunnel has been discussed at length in the House of Lords and we have been received at the very heart of government.Tom Walsh