Delight as HS2 fight moves to court

Aug 2 2012 by Lawrence Poole, Buckinghamshire Examiner

AN anti-HS2 campaigner has welcomed news her MP has written to the Government body responsible for the £33bn route to raise her concerns about the 'lost' public consultation responses.

Last month is was revealed 413 responses to 2011's HS2 Ltd's consultation into the London to Birmingham rail link had gone 'missing' causing outrage amongst protesters.

Now after writing to Chesham and Amersham MP Cheryl Gillan it has been confirmed she has been in touch with HS2 Ltd.

In a letter to anti-HS2 campaigner Marilyn Fletcher the MP said 'I wrote to HS2 to ask about the alleged report of missing submissions to the consultation and also to ask whether any of these were my constituents. Needless to say that the very fact that I have already raised these matters shows how concerned I am that these omissions may have taken place'.

Mrs Fletcher had written to the MP to seek a response after HS2 Ltd confirmed her submission was one of those which had gone 'missing'.

The Great Missenden campaigner who lives in Chiltern Manor Park said: "I'm glad Cheryl Gillan has written to them and it's good to know she's raised her concerns.

"It's shambolic these submissions have been lost, they took a lot of time to put together and a lot of work has gone into them."

She added: "We need to keep the pressure up on this - I appreciate Cheryl is working hard behind the scenes, but I wish she would speak more openly about it."

Last week it was confirmed four groups, HS2AA; the 51M group; Heathrow Hub; and Aylesbury Park Golf Club, who are bringing five claims including concerns about the 'lost' consultation responses would have their legal challenges heard in the High Court from December 3.

It follows months of fundraising to pay for the challenges since transport secretary Justine Greening - who will now also have to explain what happened with the submissions - confirmed the controversial route would go ahead.