HS2’s clearances of ancient woodland halted by Transport Secretary

Clearances of ancient woodland for HS2 must be stopped while the project is reviewed unless they are necessary to avoid major costs and delays, transport secretary Grant Shapps has announced.

Shapps has ordered HS2 Ltd – the company building the high-speed railway – to assess what removals can be halted until after the inquiry led by the firm’s former chairman Douglas Oakervee is completed.

All other preparatory works will continue during the review.

Shapps said: “There is no sense in hiding the challenges HS2 faces, or masking the difficult decisions that need to be taken.

“So, as Douglas Oakervee’s review continues, we must take a sensible approach and recognise that some works simply cannot be undone later.

“Having listened to the concerns of affected residents and parliamentary colleagues, I have ordered HS2 Ltd to consider what works affecting ancient woodland clearances can be delayed for the duration of the review.

“This ensures we avoid irreversible decisions without major impacts on cost and schedule.

“HS2 may be a complex project overall but I think this request is just common sense.”

Oakervee’s review was commissioned by the government and is analysing whether and how the project should continue.

It is considering a number of factors including the project’s benefits, impacts, affordability, efficiency, deliverability, scope and phasing.

The final report will be completed in the coming months and will inform the government’s decisions on next steps for HS2.

It emerged earlier this month that the project could be delayed by up to seven years and run £26bn over budget.

Shapps published a report by HS2 Ltd chairman Allan Cook which warned that the final phase of the railway may not open until 2040 and the project could cost £88bn at 2019 prices.

Phase 1 of HS2 is planned to run between London and Birmingham.

A second Y-shaped phase will launch in two stages: Phase 2a from the West Midlands to Crewe followed by phase 2b from Crewe to Manchester, and Birmingham to Leeds.

Cook’s report stated that phase 1 could be delayed from 2026 until as late as 2031, while the completion of phase 2b could be pushed back from 2033 to 2040.

Transport minister Baroness Vere told the House of Lords in July that £7.4bn has already been spent on HS2.

The figure includes money towards the purchase of land and property, ground investigation work, technical designs, IT systems, wages and public engagement.

Meanwhile, Joe Rukin, of campaign group Stop HS2, is set to complete a walk of the entire proposed route. In a press release published before the announcement from Shapps, he described it as a ‘last chance to see tour’:

Everywhere I have walked, I have seen landscapes which are crying out not to be destroyed by this gargantuan and completely redundant white elephant. It wasn’t until I found the last pear on the 250 year-old Cubbington Pear Tree and realised I might now be the last person ever to eat from it, that it sank in that I really was on a ‘last chance to see tour’.

And he concluded:

It is increasingly evident that HS2 is in real trouble and it has to be cancelled not tomorrow, not in a couple of months, not after a review or two have concluded, but right now. HS2 will not deliver on the promises that are being made of it, there are more important priorities, it is incompatible with the climate emergency, the costs are out of control, the damage it will cause is simply not worth it, and it is quite clearly a 19th century solution for a 21st century world. Supporting HS2 at this point in time is quite simply standing on the wrong side of history.