Sir (The Cotswolds)
(Con): May I take my hon. Friend back to his remarks about his
constituent’s farming problem? When I was on the High Speed Rail
(London – West Midlands) Bill Committee, we had some problems like
this and representatives of the National Farmers Union gave
evidence to the Committee. The NFU is constantly in touch with HS2
Ltd. There are well-known valuation techniques for dealing with all
the problems relating to land that may be taken; it is just a
question of getting HS2 round to actually doing it. May I suggest
that if my hon. Friend’s constituent were to contact the NFU, he
might get some action?
(Stafford) (Con): I am most
grateful to my hon. Friend. My office has been in touch with the
gentleman in question for many years and we are also in touch
with the NFU. I agree that there are many cases in which the
course of action that my hon. Friend describes has been
successful. The NFU has done a great job, as have local land
agents and my constituency office. I particularly want to mention
my chief of staff, James Cantrell, who has done a fantastic job
on this for many constituents over six years. However, there are
unfortunately still too many exceptions to the rule. I do not
want to do down HS2’s staff, a lot of whom work very hard and try
their best to work for my constituents, but they are often
frustrated by decisions higher up that do not give them the
latitude to make sensible decisions locally on behalf of my
constituents.
(Lichfield) (Con):...Mr
Deputy Speaker, you will know that I am not a controversial
person. Far be it from me for one moment to cause any internecine
warfare between my two great friends on the Back Benches, my hon.
Friends the Members for Stafford () and for The Cotswolds (Sir
), but I am
afraid that I am going to have to take the side of my hon. Friend
the Member for Stafford on the case of the NFU. I have been
involved both with phase 1 and phase 2a. My
staff and I personally have been involved in trying to get people
to meet HS2 and to have meetings with the NFU and HS2; it just
does not often happen. HS2 has seen a huge turnover of staff,
including managing directors and chairmen, so trying to get any
form of co-ordination between one lot of HS2 people and another
lot—let alone their meeting at the NFU locally—is often
impossible...
Sir (Stone) (Con):... On the
question of highways, let me refer briefly to a meeting that took
place only two or three days ago. It was attended by the regional
director for Highways England and by my constituents, including
the redoubtable Trevor Parkin. The meeting lasted for two hours,
and new information emerged. HS2’s detailed borrow-pit report,
which was prepared for the National Farmers Union and finalised
in April, undermines its claims about the 2,500 missing heavy
goods vehicles at Hanchurch, as well as the false information
regarding its ability to U-turn HGVs at Yarnfield that HS2
presented to Stone Town Council on 23 April. The meeting also
covered the question of HS2 Ltd’s unsafe and unacceptable
proposals for changes to the Hanchurch interchange and the
A519...
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