House of Commons Select Committee on the High Speed Rail (London - West Midlands) Bill High Speed Rail (London - West Midlands) Bill Second Special Report of Session 2015–16 Special Report, with Annexes, together with formal minutes relating to the report Ordered by the House of Commons to be printed 22 February 2016 HC 129 Select Committee on the High Speed Rail (London - West Midlands) Bill The Select Committee on the High Speed Rail (London - West Midlands) Bill provides individuals and bodies directly and specially affected by the Bill with the opportunity to object to the Bill’s specific provisions and to seek its amendment, although not to object to the principle of the Bill. Current membership Mr Robert Syms MP (Conservative, Poole) (Chair) Sir Henry Bellingham MP (Conservative, North West Norfolk) Sir Peter Bottomley MP (Conservative, Worthing West) Geoffrey Clifton-Brown MP (Conservative, The Cotswolds) Mr David Crausby MP (Labour, Bolton North East) Mr Mark Hendrick MP (Labour (Co-op), Preston) Publication Committee reports are published on the Committee’s website at www.parliament.uk/hs2-committee-commons and by The Stationery Office by Order of the House. Evidence relating to this report is also available on the Committee’s website. Committee staff The current staff of the Committee are Neil Caulfield (Clerk), Miguel Boo Fraga (Committee Assistant), and Joanna Nurse (Media Officer). Contacts All correspondence should be addressed to the Clerk of the High Speed Rail (London - West Midlands) Bill Select Committee (Commons) Committee, House of Commons, London SW1A 0AA. The telephone number for general enquiries is 020 7219 3250; the Committee’s email address is [email protected]. High Speed Rail (London - West Midlands) Bill: Second Special Report of Session 2015–16 1 Contents Summary 5 1 The Committee’s task 8 2 The Bill and the Committee 9 The HS2 Phase One Hybrid Bill 9 The Bill and the HS2 railway 9 Additional provisions 9 The Committee 12 Changes in Committee membership 12 Committee programme and decision making 13 Form of decisions and Bill amendments 14 Acknowledgments 15 3 Visits 17 4 Principal conclusions and recommendations 19 Birmingham 19 Birmingham Curzon Street and related matters 19 Washwood Heath 21 Staffordshire 22 North Warwickshire 22 Kingsbury and Water Orton 22 Other issues 24 West Midlands 26 Birmingham Interchange 26 Hampton-in-Arden 26 Other issues 27 South Warwickshire 27 Vertical alignment 27 Roads 27 Burton Green 28 Stoneleigh 28 Other issues 28 Northamptonshire 30 Chipping Warden and Aston-le-Walls 30 Culworth and Lower Thorpe 30 2 High Speed Rail (London - West Midlands) Bill: Second Special Report of Session 2015–16 Radstone 30 Wormleighton and Priors Hardwick 30 Oxfordshire 31 Wardington 31 Mixbury 31 North Buckinghamshire 33 Turweston 33 Chetwode 33 Twyford 33 Calvert and Steeple Claydon 33 FCC waste transfer station 34 Quainton and Waddesdon 35 Aylesbury and Stoke Mandeville 36 The Chilterns 36 The Bill scheme 36 Long tunnel options 37 Shorter tunnel options 38 Wendover 40 AONB 41 Hydrogeology 42 Roads in north Buckinghamshire and the Chilterns 42 Vent shafts 43 Pylons 43 Other issues 43 Heathrow 44 Heathrow spur 44 Heathrow Express depot relocation 44 Conclusion 46 The Colne Valley, Hillingdon, Denham and environs 48 The Bill scheme 48 The tunnel case 48 Viaduct design 50 Traffic 50 Other construction issues 51 Amenities 51 Harefield 52 High Speed Rail (London - West Midlands) Bill: Second Special Report of Session 2015–16 3 Hillingdon Outdoor Activities Centre (HOAC) 52 Other issues 53 Old Oak Common and West London 55 Ealing and Northolt 55 Wells House Road, Midland Terrace, Island Triangle and Stephenson Street 55 Wormwood Scrubs 56 North London 56 Canterbury Works vent shaft 56 Alexandra Place vent shaft 57 Euston and Camden 57 The proposed railway in Camden and Euston 57 Strategic alternatives 58 Adelaide Road vent shaft 59 Addressing construction impacts in Camden 60 Euston station 62 Links to HS1 63 Conclusion 63 Cases settled by negotiation 64 Further acknowledgments 65 5 The Need to Sell scheme and compensation 66 Background 66 Principles of compensation 66 Discretionary compensation schemes 67 Our previous recommendations on the Need to Sell scheme 69 The most recent Government response and our views on it 70 Applications from the same area 71 Businesses 71 Valuations and offers 71 Lending 72 Suggestions of a property bond 72 Specific cases 73 Other points 73 Conclusions 73 6 Route-wide issues and farms 75 Environmental issues and ecology 75 Operational noise 77 4 High Speed Rail (London - West Midlands) Bill: Second Special Report of Session 2015–16 Construction, air quality and vibration 80 Highways 82 Design, consultation and engagement 82 Business and Community 83 Land take and temporary or permanent occupation 84 Farm issues and tax 85 Development and railway 86 7 Locus standi 89 8 Recommendations for future hybrid bill procedure 90 Hybrid bill procedure 90 The petition deposit process 91 Rights of audience 92 Hearings and programming 93 Decision making 94 Conclusions on procedural reform 94 Conclusions 95 Annex One 96 Annex Two 108 Annex Three 110 Formal minutes 111 High Speed Rail (London - West Midlands) Bill: Second Special Report of Session 2015–16 5 Summary This report contains the final directions and recommendations of the Select Committee on the High Speed 2 Phase One Hybrid Bill after 160 days of sittings over nearly two years. Our responsibility was to hear petitions from those specially and directly affected by the Bill and, where we believed it was appropriate, to suggest modifications, assurances, undertakings or mitigation to address petitioners’ concerns. We have directed a number of amendments to the proposed HS2 Phase One project. Notably, we have directed a longer Chilterns bored tunnel, greater noise protection for Wendover, better construction arrangements in Hillingdon, and a remodelled maintenance depot at Washwood Heath to maximise local job opportunities. We have said there should be a coherent approach to the redevelopment of Euston. In many cases not specifically mentioned in this report we have intervened to encourage fairness, practical settlements, the giving of assurances, or better mitigation. We have recommended amendments to the operation of the discretionary compensation schemes which we believe will result in greater fairness and a more functional property market in areas near to the proposed line. We also suggest improvements to the procedure for dealing with hybrid bills. We trust they will help achieve better processes for the further anticipated phases of HS2. Our work on Phase One, we believe, helps to add substantial environmental, social and design benefits to the scheme, commensurate with good use of public money and a viable engineering design. 6 High Speed Rail (London - West Midlands) Bill: Second Special Report of Session 2015–16 Robert Syms MP, Chair of the HS2 Select Committee High Speed Rail (London - West Midlands) Bill: Second Special Report of Session 2015–16 7 8 High Speed Rail (London - West Midlands) Bill: Second Special Report of Session 2015–16 1 The Committee’s task 1. Our instructions were to consider petitions against the Bill and ‘additional provisions’ to it (additional provisions being, for these purposes, amendments that potentially affect other bodies and individuals). We had powers to amend the Bill but not on its principle, which the House defined as: [ … ] the provision of a high speed railway between Euston in London and a junction with the West Coast Main Line at Handsacre in Staffordshire, with a spur from Water Orton in Warwickshire to Curzon Street in Birmingham, and intermediate stations at Old Oak Common and Birmingham Interchange. Also not at issue before us was the railway’s “broad route alignment”.1 The “broad route alignment” language was chosen to permit an element of sensible discretion. We had power to make changes within but not outside that alignment. 2. A total of 2,586 petitions was deposited against the Bill and its additional provisions, of which 1,918 petitions were deposited against the Bill itself and 668 were against additional provisions.2 We heard nearly 1,600 of these. Approximately 800 petitions were withdrawn from the process or were not the subject of any appearance before the Committee. Many petitioners chose sensibly and helpfully to associate themselves with one or more other petitioners whose petition issues were similar or identical, and elected not to appear on that basis. There were approximately 300 of these, representing somewhat more than 10% of total petition numbers. They are listed in Annex 1. We thank them. 3. The members of the Committee before the General Election in May 2015 were: Robert Syms MP, Henry Bellingham MP, Sir Peter Bottomley MP, Ian Mearns MP, Yasmin Qureshi MP and Michael Thornton MP. From July 2015 the members were: Robert Syms MP, Sir Henry Bellingham MP, Sir Peter Bottomley MP, Geoffrey Clifton-Brown MP, David Crausby MP and Mark Hendrick MP. 1 HC Deb, 29 April 2014, col 771 [Commons Chamber] 2 www.parliament.uk/business/committees/committees-a-z/commons-select/high-speed-rail-london-west-midlands- bill-select-committee-commons/publications/ High Speed Rail (London - West Midlands) Bill: Second Special Report of Session 2015–16 9 2 The Bill and the Committee The HS2 Phase One Hybrid Bill The Bill and the HS2 railway 4. The High Speed Rail (London - West Midlands) Bill contains the proposed legislative powers for building Phase One of the first major rail route north of London since the 19th century. Our interim report outlined the main features of the proposed railway and the history of the Bill. It explained the nature of hybrid bills.3 5. As well as authorising the works needed to build the railway, the Bill contains powers for compulsory acquisition of land and property rights, including subsoil to enable tunnel works, and for temporary land use.