As HS2 Ltd finally admit they are scrapping their plan to redevelop Euston station having underestimated its cost by £500 million, Cllr Sarah Hayward, Leader of Camden council comments: 

“The new plans being put forward by HS2 Limited amount to a shed being bolted onto an existing lean to.

“Euston stands to have all of the blight with none of the benefits. There will be no regeneration or economic benefits while homes will be demolished, communities destroyed and businesses wiped out.

“This entire scheme is ill conceived and poorly planned – and Camden will bear the brunt of HS2′s incompetence.”

Camden Labour firmly opposes HS2 due to its destructive impact upon Camden and we are therefore highlighting this video and press release from local residents in the Euston area (including comments from Frank Dobson MP)

HS2 Ltd has removed a video posted on You Tube relating to its Compensation Consultation “HS2: Property and Compensation for London – Midlands” after a complaint by the HS2 Euston Community Forum that it was seriously misleading. The video was liberally illustrated by shots of streets and blocks in the Euston area. However, few of these residents stood to benefit from the six compensation measures outlined in the video.

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Camden Labour is opposed to HS2 and is in the process of judicially reviewing the coalition government’s decision to proceed with HS2.

One of the reasons why Labour in Camden opposes this scheme is our long-standing concerns about the business case and wider evidence for High Speed 2. And our doubts of the ability of both HS2 Ltd and the Department for Transport to deliver the project in the least damaging way for Camden and the country.

The announcement made by the Department for Transport of problems with the tender for the West Coast Mainline seem to add weight to our concerns about their ability to deliver major projects.

With £32bn of taxpayers money at stake and with hundreds of homes, businesses and lives to be affected in Camden and along the line, now is the time for Government to pause its plans for HS2 and do a complete review.

If the mandarins in Whitehall cannot be trusted with their sums it is only right that any independent body is given the opportunity to review the viability of the project.

Camden Labour will continue to oppose the scheme at every opportunity, and fight for proper mitigation for all Camden’s communities if the government insists on proceeding.

Camden Labour have secured a victory for local residents as the government have accepted one of the party’s key demands in the campaign against High Speed 2.  It has been revealed that the government is now in the process of buying the National Temperance Hospital site in Euston in the expectation it will be used for new homes for those forced to move if HS2 goes ahead.

“We remain opposed to HS2. There is still a very long list of very negative impacts that Government must act to mitigate. But this early victory for Camden’s Labour administration on behalf of our residents is significant.”

A further boost to the Camden Labour campaign also occurred this week as Labour’s Mayoral candidate, Ken Livingstone, and London Assembly candidate for Camden, Andrew Dismore, visited residents and businesses in the area most heavily impacted by HS2.  The Labour candidates are pledging to do all they can to get HS2 rerouted to stop Camden homes being demolished.

Camden council has announced a legal challenge to the Secretary of State for Transport over flawed proposals for the High Speed 2 rail project, which will devastate the borough.

In a letter published in the Camden New Journal, Lazzaro Pietragnoli, Labour candidate for the Camden Town with Primrose Hill by-election (pictured below), said:

“Although there is nothing corrupt in the series of private talks between senior representatives of the government (including the Prime Minister) and bosses of HS2 developers, Arup Ltd (New Journal, March 29); they do offer a pretty damning contrast to the attitude so far shown to local residents in Camden concerned about these plans.

These plans will devastate our borough.  When local people, including in my own area of Primrose Hill, tried to raise concerns about the social, economic and environmental impact of the project, what did they get as a response? Not an invitation to supper at Number 10, but a dearth of information plus a series of poorly organised forums that the press and some members of the public were apparently banned from attending.  This is unacceptable.  These concerns are not matter of party allegiance, as demonstrated very well by the unusual alliance between 15 local councils, many of them run by the Conservatives, that are challenging the government in court. Camden is among them and is rightly defending the interests of its residents.

Hundreds of homes, many local streets, small businesses and even a school will be destroyed if the project goes ahead as it is at the moment. We do not want simply to tinker around the edges; we want the project to be at the very least fundamentally revised and we want our local representatives to have a formal say on it.  Most of all, we want the Government to listen to the people on whom the project will be imposed and not only the companies that stand to profit.”

Published and promoted by P Jones on behalf of Lazzaro Pietragnoli and Camden Labour Party, all at 110 Gloucester Avenue, London NW1 8HX