(Lab):...Lest noble Lords think that I am unnecessarily
alarmist on this, I am doing my public duty to see that this
catastrophic and historic error is not made. Every time I raise
this issue and engage with stakeholders, my concerns become
greater. Since I made my remarks on Monday I have had a number of
private representations, which it would not be proper for me to
reveal because I gave non-disclosure agreements in response to
those, but I have also had a very significant public representation
—which I have forwarded to the Minister to give her an opportunity
to respond in her reply—from Professor David Rae, who is a
professor of enterprise at De Montfort University in Leicester, an
area which would gain enormously from the benefits of HS2 east.
Perhaps I may read the key part of his letter to the Grand
Committee, because it specifically responds to the points I raised
in our previous sitting on Monday. He writes:
“Consistent with your Twitter messages”—
I tweet summaries of my speeches because they are far too long to
inflict on the public at their full extent—
“regarding the threatened axing of the HS2 Eastern link, a
well-informed source tells me that the National Infrastructure
Commission, which is preparing the Rail Plan”—
the one that the noble Baroness keeps referring to, and which she
rightly says I do not like because it is the disguise for
delaying or cancelling it—
“which will recommend the future investment, is more likely to
propose that HS2 East is only built from Birmingham to East
Midlands Parkway (EMP) and there to join the existing Midland
Mainline and follow existing … lines to Nottingham, Derby and
North to Leeds. Even if this is approved, there are multiple
negative effects. In terms of rail, there will be few gains in
either rail capacity or speed, and none north of EMP. In effect
the Leeds and Northern HS2 link would be via HS2 to Manchester
and thence via Transpennine Rail”...
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