Crofton against HS2

September 28th 2017 :  HS2 Limited lied to the Department for Transport about the M18 Eastern Route

In it's advice to ministers on July 17th 2017, HS2 Limited lied to the Government about the fact that the M18 Eastern Route had been rejected by HS2 Limited in 2012 when it was formerly called East of Rotherham.

Yet as this extract from a FOI letter to our campaign from 2016 clearly shows, HS2 Limited acknowledges the very opposite that East of Rotherham and M18 Eastern Route are broadly the same (exception of a 2km tunnel at Hickleton and the M18 being more engineered) 

All this deception is highlighted in our correspondence with Rail Minister Paul Maynard, and in the meeting with him in the Houses of Parliament in September this year. Worth reminding why HS2 Limited rejected the route again in 2012:  because of the noise impacts at Mexborough, the distance from Sheffield, the higher costs and impacts.

The Secret Route which HS2 lied about to Crofton for Two Years.

As a result of Crofton campaigners forensically challenging HS2 Limited over the number of residential demolitions on the M18 Eastern Route and the false claims by HS2 Limited of fewer affected residents and fewer demolitions, it emerged in September 2016, that a version of the previous Meadowhall route (now rejected) had been adapted or "refined" to lower costs. Despite requests from Campaigners and Media to obtain details of where the route went and what places were affected, these incredibly were refused as they were against the public interest and might blight areas unnecessarily. Actually there can be nothing more in the public interest to know if a high speed train is going to pass through your home.  For residents of New Crofton, the refined Meadowhall route was identical to the M18 Eastern Route (previously rejected by HS2 Ltd in 2011 then known as East of Rotherham) and for two years we were kept in the dark about HS2 Ltd's plans while the Secretary of State for Transport Patrick McClaughlin secretly visited Crofton in April 2016. When the M18 Route was announced in June 2016 to South Yorkshire Councils in Sheffield, West Yorkshire was forgotten , Crofton was ignored. TV and Newspapers in Wakefield and Leeds were briefed that the route involved no changes for West Yorkshire, only true because, the changes had happening in secret 2 years before. It was this secret route which was used to decide the change rather than the 2013 Consulted route, despite claims to the contrary in the Higgins Report