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| Little Missenden, Buckinghamshire |
The public consultation on phase two of
the HS2 high speed rail line began this week, amid signs that the
cross-party consensus in favour of the project may be starting to
break down. Lord Mandelson called it “an expensive mistake”, and
Tom Harris MP, rail minister in the Labour government that initiated
the scheme, admitted the original cost calculations were done “on
the back of a fag packet”.
There seems to be a new development in
the HS2 saga almost every other day. In recent weeks the estimated
cost has risen from £32 billion to £53 billion, Margaret Hodge,
chair of the Public Accounts Committee, has called the government's
business case “farcical”, and HS2
Ltd, the government-owned company charged with building the new
railway, has apparently looked again at a previously rejected
alternative proposal for the Euston terminal which would avoid the
need to demolish hundreds of homes in the Regent’s Park Estate (below). If
accepted, it would be the third design for the station in as many
months, and a major rethink very likely to impact on the newly
revised cost estimate.
Outside Westminster, apart from some politicians and business leaders
in Birmingham, Manchester and Leeds, there is massive opposition to
the scheme from action groups and local authorities along the whole
of the route from Euston, through the West Midlands, and northwards.
If the political consensus does crumble, the scheme will probably
stagger on until the next election, prolonging the blight and
uncertainty faced by residents and businesses close to the new line –
but what happens then is anybody's guess.
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| Several blocks on Camden Council's Regent's Park Estate and one of the three towers on Ampthill Square Estate are threatened with demolition |
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