I ATTENDED the HS2 Consultation held at the Winsford Lifestyle Centre, in my role as a protester.
The meeting was staffed by Department for Transport staff either as HS2 Ltd or D for T, which made it sometimes confusing to which entity they were purporting to represent.
They were polite but as this was supposed to be a “public consultation”, there was no evidence that they were taking note of our views.
They had no data on Land Take and were completely unable to show the effects on farming or business communities.
They had no data or answer relating to blight caused to 540,000 homes along the route of both Phase 1 and Phase 2.
Assuming the average household is 2.4 persons, this means that 1.3million people’s final security is ruined.
The D for T spokesperson did not accept the statement that WCML would be full by 2020.
When further pressed that the real problem was capacity on commuter routes, not long distance, he claimed that his department had seen many proposals and that they were not fit for purpose.
When the expanding Manchester and Sheffield systems were shown to be successful, no answer was forthcoming.
With relation to noise levels, most noise will emanate from the Pantograph, not the wheels, therefore the current planned shielding of the wheels will not reduce noise levels to acceptable levels.
The final irony was that only about 85 people attended the Winsford Roadshow and many of them came from the Cheshire Villages most affected, such as Lach Dennis and Lostock Gralam.
EWEN SIMPSON All Cheshire Against HS2
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