|  |
Home |  | |
News | | |
Cheryl Gillan | | |
James Elles MEP | | |
Councils & Councillors | | |
Policies | | |
Events | | |
Contact or Join us | | |
Local Association | |
|
In this section |
|
21st July 2010
HIGH SPEED RAIL 2
I write to advise you that at a recent meeting of the Executive Council of the Chesham & Amersham Conservative Association the following motion was placed before the membership for discussion.
“That this Association calls on the Secretary of State for Transport to immediately lift the blight cast on the Chiltern AONB by withdrawing unequivocally any proposal to build a High Speed Railway through the Chilterns”
As you are doubtless aware the proposed preferred route for the HS2 Railway will cut through the middle of this constituency damaging irreparably the cherished Chiltern Area Outstanding Natural Beauty. The members of the Executive Council felt that this was indefensible and represented a threat that the Coalition should seek to remove from this area as early quickly as possible.
Other matters discussed during the debate on this motion were as follows:
(i) HS2 will cost in excess of GBP30 billion at a time when the national finances are already stretched for questionable long term gain – many rail timetablers argue that the same time savings could be achieved through smart timetabling on existing London to Birmingham routes.
(ii) That the HS2 scheme is based on a fundamentally flawed business case which is built on rising business usage at the dawn of the digital revolution which should make travel less not more likely, and makes no account of the value of losing a vast area of ANOB.
(iii) That the scheme will pose a significant challenge to the nations energy infrastructure given the massive power demanded to move 28 High Speed trains per hour at an excess of 200mph.
(iv) Fail to meet the requirements of the Conservative Party’s policy which clearly states the need for high speed rail to link the major transport hubs in the South East and reach through to Leeds, Manchester and ultimately beyond.
(v) The proposed route shows a lack of joined up thinking in that there is no connection between HS1 and HS2
We would welcome an early opportunity to meet with you to discuss our objections in detail to the proposed route of HS2.
Furthermore we would welcome the opportunity to walk the proposed route with you so that you can see for yourself the extreme damage that it will cause to our environmental heritage.
29th July 2010
| |
