Anger at '˜insultingly low' offer from HS2

An '˜insultingly low' offer of money to improve communities blighted by HS2 will be challenged by Bucks County Council at the House of Lords later this month.
HS2 stock image PNL-161002-115346001HS2 stock image PNL-161002-115346001
HS2 stock image PNL-161002-115346001

Last week the Government announced it had allocated £15m for its Community and Environment Fund (CEF) – to be split between the five counties of Staffordshire, Warwickshire, Oxfordshire, Northamptonshire and Buckinghamshire.

The fund is intended to enhance community facilities, improve access to the countryside and protect the environment along the high speed rail route.

However, county council leader Martin Tett, said as things stand it will have ‘virtually have no impact.’

Cllr Tett said: “The announcement is terribly disappointing and implies that the Government just hasn’t grasped the sheer scale of the disruption HS2 will cause to people’s lives and businesses in Buckinghamshire.

“HS2 is a £55 billion project which has already spent £2 billion even before a single length of track has been laid.

“The allocation of £15 million in an area in which around two-thirds of the length of phase one will be laid is insultingly low and wholly inadequate.”