PUBLIC SESSION MINUTES OF ORAL EVIDENCE taken before HIGH SPEED RAIL COMMITTEE On the HIGH SPEED RAIL (LONDON – WEST MIDLANDS) BILL Wednesday, 28 January (Afternoon) In Committee Room 5 PRESENT: Mr Robert Syms (Chair) Mr Henry Bellingham Sir Peter Bottomley Ian Mearns Mr Michael Thornton _____________ IN ATTENDANCE Mr Timothy Mould QC, Lead Counsel, Department for Transport Witnesses: Ms Joanna Wilson, Aston-le-Walls Parish Council Mr Maurice Cole, Thorpe Mandeville Parish Council Mr Ken Christy Ms Beryl Christy _____________ IN PUBLIC SESSION INDEX Subject Page Aston-le-Walls Parish Council Submissions from Ms Wilson 3 Submissions from Mr Mould 11 Thorpe Mandeville Parish Council Submissions from Mr Cole 18 Submissions from Mr Mould 26 Closing submissions from Mr Cole 29 Ken Christy and Beryl Christy Submissions from Mr Christy 31 Submission by Mr Mould 34 Closing submissions from Mr Christy 37 2 (at 14.00) 1. CHAIR: Welcome back this afternoon to the HS2 Select Committee. We hear this afternoon from Aston-le-Walls Parish Council and Joanna Wilson. Are you going to do an introduction, Mr Mould? 2. MR MOULD QC (DfT): I’m not going to introduce Ms Wilson’s petition. She’s going to deal with that. But can I just announce one thing, which I think will be of interest to the Committee and also to petitioners generally? It’s just to say that we have published a slightly revised version of information paper (E1), which is the information paper that explains the approach of the project to the control of environmental impacts, and it deals amongst other things with the environmental minimal requirements, which as you know have been a source of particular interest to petitioners. And the change in a nutshell is to make clear that the environmental minimal requirements will remain in draft and subject to improvement whilst the bill process is going on, and the final version will be published at the same time as royal assent, in the event that the bill receives royal assent. 3. CHAIR: Okay. Thank you. Could we have a map of the parish up, please? 4. MR MOULD QC (DfT): Yes. Do you want it? Alton-le-Walls Parish Council 5. MS WILSON: That’s the one I wanted. That’s perfect. Thank you. Right. Good afternoon. 6. CHAIR: Good afternoon. 7. MS WILSON: My name is Jo Wilson. I’m a parish councillor and I represent the residents in the parish of Aston-le-Walls. We’re connected with Appletree, so we’re all one parish. We’re a small parish with 127 homes, 249 residents on the electoral roll, and a population of approximately 300, including all the children too young to vote. Our precept is £7,000, so we don’t have a lot of money to spend on specific surveys, professional representation when we’re dealing with all the business of HS2. So I’m 3 going to give you a brief overview of where the proposed line goes through the parish, tell you what we would like to be left with at the end of the construction phase and into the future, and explain why these issues are important to us, and how these outcomes might be achieved. Okay. 8. So you’ve got the map in front of you there. This is the parish boundary. The very, very squiggly line is Highfield-on-Brook, which is – as you can see that is one side of our boundary. In comparison with some communities we are very fortunate, the line enters from the north and there’s only a small section. We’re fortunate to have this green tunnel, which is the extension. Originally, it was a cutting but then the Chipping Warden green tunnel was extended across almost past Aston-le-Walls, but not quite. And then it comes out of the tunnel and it goes across on an embankment, which is across Washbrook Farm, the cross-country course. I think some of you will have come out at that point and stood on the mound on the cross-country course and seen where the line goes. I’m not going to talk about Washbrook Farm because that is a separate petition. We’ll leave that to Anne and Nigel Taylor. 9. As I say, at an open meeting we asked our residents what was important to them and how they felt they were being affected by HS2, and we come up with five points. Now, these are what we would like to see facilitated by the Committee. One is relocation of the construction compound. If we just look at a map, is this 3722? No. But relocation of the construction compound, the north portal maintenance building, autotransformer station and the access road. This will show you. Thank you. If you look, you can see where there is a construction compound then just below that there is the portal maintenance building and the autotransformer station. We would like those moved to the other side of the line. 10. We’d like a ban on any construction and maintenance traffic coming into the village, a paved footpath along the Welsh Road to the junction with the A361, a roundabout at the junction with the A361, and, just as a small thing, to keep Appletree Lane open to walkers – there’s a concrete path, which I’ll point out later – to keep that open to walkers as it would form a circular walk. I’ll give you a brief background. I’ll just mention – Last night at 6.30, we had a letter from HS2 offering assurance on a point. Point number 2. 4 11. MR BELLINGHAM: Sorry, what happened at 6.30? 12. MS WILSON: We had a letter through email from HS2. And they were giving an assurance on point 2, which was about the construction traffic in the village. I haven’t had a chance to look at it thoroughly and I can’t really comment too much on it without talking to the rest of the parish council, which puts me in a tricky situation. So I’m carry on and go through this just to make sure that I’m covered. 13. So we’ll go to point number 1. Could I map A764? Okay. So that shows clearly – You’ll see the orange construction compound, then going to the left there is the portal maintenance building and the autotransformer station. Now, those we would like moved to the other side of the line, to the west. This is being dealt with by the land owner, which is David and Julie Thrusher, who are petitioning next week. So I’m not going to talk about that now. I’ll leave it to them. But it is directly linked to point number two. 14. If we look at map P – it’s an HS2 map. I hope they don’t mind me using these resources. It’s P3725. Now, we highlighted the fact that the roads in our village are not suitable for construction traffic. This was years ago. So here we are with this problem. 3725 shows construction routes. As you can see the main compound is on the A361 Byfield Welsh Road, which – cursor to the right. No. Way over here. That’s it. Where all the brown stuff is. That’s it. That’s the main construction compound. So traffic is coming up the Byfield Road and turning left and going all the way along there. Okay. Stop there. That’s it. So Blacksmiths’ Lane and Main Street are the only access roads which are possible, according to the Environmental Statement, which gives the access to that satellite compound is Byfield Road (A361) and then Welsh Road. So the only way to get from Welsh Road to the compound is either using Blacksmith’s Lane or Main Street. 15. So let’s have a quick look. It looks fine on paper, but if we go to A751. That’s Main Street. There’s a village hall on the left where the BMW is, and that’s the school bus, and just up behind there on the right hand side there is a village school. If we go to – actually, that bus looks as if it’s moving in to get through. So if you go to A752, this 5 was a letter from the school supporting out desire to keep construction traffic out of the village. 16. So, let’s look at Blacksmith’s Lane. If you go to 756, this is Blacksmiths’ Lane. We’ll just run through these quickly. These are various shots. There’s a bend there. It actually looks wider than it is there. 757, that’s more like it. That’s down the bottom. Another bend. 758. Actually, the Committee probably – You came up this road on the bus. I don’t know if you remember. There’s another bend there. And 759, just another bend. It’s just all bends. It’s a narrow road full of bends. The school operate an unofficial one-way system down Main Street and down Blacksmith’s Lane. Anything going in the opposite direction at drop off and pick up times gets stuck. It’s frustrating that we’ve pointed this out so many times and yet 6.30 last night was the only time we’ve heard any positive feedback from HS2. 17. The other thing is we don’t want any traffic at all. Not just HGVs. When I glanced through the letter last night it was saying no heavy construction traffic.