On 25th November 2013 the HS2 Environmental Statement was released by the Government. It is a very detailed plan for the construction programme of HS2 and forms the basis of the Hybrid Bill, the parliamentary go ahead for the scheme.
The documents number thousands of pages and can be viewed in the local libraries or here.
The parish council and Hampton Society have worked together to read the lengthy documents and extract detail that is important for the village, sent off separate responses, click here to read the response of the parish council.
Representatives of the parish council and Hampton Society have been working closely with Councillors and planning officers at SMBC and we are pleased to report that all our ‘asks’ have been included in the SMBC response.
The parish council has prepared a petition concerning the adverse effects of HS2 on the community, which has been submitted to and accepted by the Parliamentary Select Committee. The petition covers important issues of mitigation for the village in which we are supported by SMBC.
On 16th September 2014 members of the select committee visited the local area and spent 15 minutes talking to representatives of the Parish Council and Hampton Society at Patricks Farm about our serious concerns.
On December 11th 2014 a delegation from the Parish Council and Hampton Society travelled to London to appear in front of the HS2 Select Committee and present the petition outlined below. We spoke for 2 hours and were very well received the Chair subsequently stating ‘The Hampton-in-Arden petitioners presented their case formidably. We are confident that their impressive abilities will contribute to reaching sensible outcomes with HS2 and Solihull on their particular issues of concern, especially viaduct design and flooding. If there are unresolved problems, they should feel free to inform us and there will be time to call them back’. A meeting has been organised with HS2 negotiators to firm up on the promises that were made.
The transcript of the presentation can be found here or viewed here.
The closure of Diddington Lane to through traffic has always been an element of the HS2 plans and we understood that this has been supported by many villagers in order to prevent the lane being a short cut to the Interchange Station on the A452 near Melbicks Nursery. It is disappointing that Packington Estate have been able to persuade HS2 to work on a plan to keep the lane open so if you would like to make your view on this matter known please email the parish clerk. We have now seen the amended plan for keeping Diddington Lane open which is a new road to the west of the current Diddington Lane, unfortunately if this goes ahead it has to be a modern standard road and so wider than at present. We will continue to fight against this and if it does happen we will seek traffic calming measures which will discourage an increase of traffic using Diddington Lane and the village roads as a whole.
A constructive meeting between the Parish Council, the Hampton-in-Arden Society and Packington Estates was held in April. As a result an agreed statement has been sent to HS2 detailing what would be acceptable to all parties (including the Council and the Society seeking to retain the existing alignment of Diddington Lane and restricting access to through traffic). We await a response.
The parish council remains fundamentally opposed to HS2 which will severely affect the nature of our village for future generations.