STONELEIGH HS2 ACTION GROUP HIGH SPEED RAIL CONSULTATION - A RESPONSE FROM THE STONELEIGH HS2 ACTION GROUP Background to the response. Our Group, the Stoneleigh HS2 Action Group, was formed immediately following the public announcement of the Government’s plans for HS2 in March 2010 and the publication of the Command Paper. The full realisation of what these proposals would mean for the village, its residents and property values, caused anxiety and despair, a sense of disbelief that they could seriously be made, without any prior public consultation. Everything that our village and our homes meant to us in common with a wide section of the public who have an interest in the village and its setting, its buildings and heritage and its National Agriculture Centre was suddenly put in serious jeopardy. Not only would the preferred route be a catastrophe for our village but also for the countryside of Warwickshire which already has its fair share of motorways, trunk roads, airports and railways. As originally proposed, the track approached from the South West, passed through the heart of the neighbouring hamlet of Stareton (which would effectively have become uninhabitable) crossing the River Avon and the historic Stoneleigh Park on an elevated track before proceeding over the River Sowe (near its confluence with the Avon), over the B4115 and to the North towards Kenilworth The village and the wider community and the public who visit Stoneleigh value and take pride in the village and the landscape in which it is set; it is imperative that Stoneleigh and its heritage are preserved for future generations. The Stoneleigh Conservation Area was designated in 1969, there being nearly 70 Listed Buildings within the heart of the village – the greatest number in Warwickshire, we believe. Our Church of St Mary the Virgin is nationally recognised as one of the finest examples of Norman church architecture, and Stoneleigh Bridge is a Scheduled Ancient Monument. In the immediate vicinity, Stare Bridge and the deserted medieval village of Kings Hill are also Scheduled Ancient Monuments, and Stoneleigh Abbey is not only Grade I Listed, but its grounds and Deer Park are Grade II Listed in the English Heritage Register of Historic Parks and Gardens. Warwick District Council describes the Conservation Area as “a series of distinctive open spaces following the line of the river which are extremely important to both the views out of the village and into the village and should be retained as open agricultural land.” It goes on “There are important views across the Conservation Area from the southern approaches to the village. Similarly there are important views out of the village in a southerly 1 direction.” Both the B4113 as it approaches the village from Stareton, and the B4115 from Ashow are planted with “veteran” parkland oaks. Our village has a long history in connection with mediaeval monastic activity at the nearby abbey, and after the Dissolution it became the provider of homes for Estate workers to the Stoneleigh Abbey Estate, purchased 450 years ago in 1561 by Sir Thomas Leigh. Since that date the history of the village contains many references to legacies from the Leigh family, including the Almshouses, the school, the Reading Room (now the Village Club), the cottages for the workers and so on. They exercised a paternalistic interest in the village for over four hundred years, ensuring the well-being of the villagers and maintaining a close connection with the “big house.” The Leigh family no longer resides at the Abbey but links between the village and the Abbey are strong and the physical, emotional and historical and indeed, the spiritual roots, are intertwined. Our responses to the proposed High Speed Rail Link therefore have to be set within this context, as the way we think and react is necessarily so conditioned. In preparing these responses our guiding principle has been: If HS2 goes ahead on the currently preferred route we in Stoneleigh feel that ,with the wider public, we are likely to lose a great deal, environmentally, economically, historically and emotionally. Would these losses be balanced or compensated for by the net gain to the economy of UK plc? That is very much an open question currently the subject of much debate and widely disputed in the media and elsewhere.. What does the route mean to us? The Adonis Command Paper and other documents made public information in March 2010, particularly recognised the sensitivity of the published route through Stoneleigh Park and Gardens. Arup’s 2009 report at paragraph 5.22 stated:- “The route would then pass between the grounds of the National Agricultural Centre (NAC) and Stoneleigh Village, resulting in it passing through Stoneleigh National Park and Garden. The route would be at ground level but would pass over the River Sowe and one of its tributaries. It might be possible to realign the route through the grounds of the NAC, severing it, or requiring a cut-and-cover tunnel to avoid permanent severance.” Thereafter, we as a Group collaborated with representatives of Stareton urging this alteration to the preferred route. In September 2010 a revised route was published showing that indeed the line had been rerouted along its southern approach to the NAC, away from Stareton and through the National Agricultural Centre/Stoneleigh Park before crossing the River Avon to the North. This alteration did not however involve a cut-and-cover tunnel through the NAC (concerning which please see below) so that the NAC would be severed, thus threatening the future viability 2 of the Showground activity and the number of agricultural, equestrian and commercial activities carried on day to day and the employment of many earning their livelihoods there. The owners of the Showground have or had the ambition and the vision to develop the Showground as a centre of excellence for research and as a specialist training centre and exhibition venue for Agricultural and associated subjects and, providing significantly increased and much-needed employment in the area. To the north of the Showground the route would then cross over the River Avon by viaduct and subsequently the fields up to the A46 where it passes under the road, crossing under the B4115 before it does so. This latter road is tree lined and undulating; it has connections with Roman and earlier settlements and was used as an ancient drovers’ road. To allow the route to pass at ground level through the Showground would evidently involve rerouting Stareton Lane at its junction with the B4113 with associated bridging works at or close to the main showground entrance. The road would need to be elevated at least 8m to clear the route, and this junction would probably then need to be illuminated. This would introduce a destructive visual element into the landscape which was originally remodelled by Humphry Repton, with some noble examples of veteran parkland oaks. In passing so closely, the rail would seriously damage the visual impact of the lovely Stare Bridge, a fifteenth century monastic bridge (Listed as Grade II*) associated with Stoneleigh Abbey, and it may demolish, the Abbey’s East Lodge (also a Listed Building). The elevated road would cause further noise pollution from passing traffic. With the rail line proposed to run over the surface, what mitigation was proposed to ensure that there would be adequate sound and visual screening was and remains of considerable importance to us and the residents of Stareton and Stoneleigh Park, the new development at Grovehurst Park and other sites there including in Stoneleigh Abbey itself. No details have been provided at this stage, apparently intentionally, so that we are disappointed that we cannot comment on these. Our concerns extend to the residents of Crew Lane to the north of the River Avon and, further to the north, those living in Dalehouse Lane, both particularly vulnerable Given our obvious concern about the potential effects that the proposed route would have on the Showground, with the adverse visual and noise effects which the southern approach to and through the Showground could be expected to have, we liaised with Stoneleigh Park Residents Association (SPRA) (representing residents of Stareton) and made joint representations to HS2 Ltd for a cut-and-cover tunnel through the southern approach to and through the Showground up to the River Avon north of the Showground and the proposed viaduct over it. This proposal was submitted to HS2 Ltd in January 2011 and it was followed by a meeting between representatives of our Group and SPRA with members of HS2 Ltd’s engineering team. At this meeting we 3 believe our joint proposals were favourably received and we understood that it was accepted that they represented a sound engineering solution to the problems that the preferred route represented to Stareton, the Showground and to the Stoneleigh area. After the Consultation period commenced we were, with SPRA invited to submit our proposals as formal responses in the Consultation. Along with SPRA we therefore resubmitted these proposals as formal Consultation responses. We now wish to re-emphasise our strong support for this proposal should the decision be made to proceed with HS2 on its currently preferred route. However, the fact that we made this proposal in no way implied or now implies our support for the route, but to urge that this Green Tunnel should be incorporated as essential mitigation in the detailed design if the ultimate decision is to proceed with HS2 to the Construction stage on this route. (Please see the correspondence attached in Annex 1 hereto for details of our proposal for the Green Tunnel). In summary, the Green Tunnel as proposed would have the following merits: 1.