High Speed Two update

High Speed  2

We have reached the stage of petitioning the Hybrid Bill which received its second reading in the Commons on 28^th April.    Petitioning is a final chance of influencing the project and securing improvements.

The petitioning deadline was the 23^rd May.     Petitioners will be invited to attend the HS2 Select Committee – the timetable is yet to be announced.

The Bucks County Council petition can be seen on the 51m group website at http://www.51m.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/BCC-Petition-FINAL-BCC.pdf   

The AVDC petition will be published on the council’s website shortly.      AVDC’s petition will pick up on noise issues, construction related matters, ecological and heritage concerns.   Bucks County Council’s petition focuses on route-wide and strategic issues, including highways, waste disposal, and ecological issues.

Key requests relating to this area:

a)        Sustainable placement (spoil dump)  at Calvert

-          consider whether the waste material could be put to alternative uses in the vicinity (e.g. the incinerator site)

b)        A Country Park in the Vale of Aylesbury

-           provision should be made for a country park (and an endowment for its future maintenance and management) in the vicinity of the IMD

c)       Mitigation for the impacts from the Infrastructure Maintenance Depot

-          deliveries of larger and bulkier goods and materials to the IMD should be made by rail both during the construction stage and when in operation; 

-          a traffic routing scheme should be implemented that takes into account the environmental impacts of traffic as well as traffic movements;

-          night time deliveries to the site, both during the construction stage and when in operation, should be minimised;

-           lighting at the site should be low-level, designed to minimise light-spillage, or activity-initiated;

-           the open brook that will be removed during construction should be reinstated after the temporary railhead has been removed.

d)       Impact on East West Rail

-          ensure that the implementation of East West Rail will not be delayed or its subsequent operation affected unduly or unreasonably by the construction or operation of the works to be authorised by the Bill

-          ensure that a station is provided (either by building it or funding it) on the East West Rail line at Steeple Claydon, to serve the IMD and surrounding  communities.