A high-speed rail link that will pass through north Oxfordshire will go ahead despite opposition from local residents, councils and environmental campaigners.
On Tuesday, Transport Secretary Justine Greening that the controversial HS2 scheme would be up and running from 2026 with trains travelling at up to 250mph. The £33bn project involves the construction of a new, 140-mile line between London and Birmingham, which the Government says will dramatically increase the number of passenger seats and relieve congestion on the existing network, as well as road and air routes.
A journey from Birmingham to London will be reduced from one hour and 24 minutes to 45 minutes, and Justine Greening MP said: “A new high speed rail network will provide Britain with the additional train seats, connections and speed to stay ahead of the congestion challenge and help create jobs, growth and prosperity for the entire country.
“HS2 will link some of our greatest cities – and high speed trains will connect with our existing railway lines to provide seamless journeys to destinations far beyond it. This is a truly British network that will serve far more than the cities directly on the line."
The proposed route will affect Finmere, Mixbury, Newton Purcell and Godington in Cherwell, and pass through the Chilterns Area Of Natural Beauty (AONB). Extra tunnelling has been announced to mitigate the project's environmental impact, but Helen Marshall, director of the Oxfordshire branch of the Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE), said: “Any new infrastructure will have a devastating effect on the countryside through which it passes and parliament must balance this with the national interest.
"We remain to be convinced that this is the least damaging way of meeting the needs of our growing urban population and the national economy. The extra tunnelling now being proposed is a step in the right direction but there are many more mitigation measures to be considered, such as landscaping and noise barriers, which will be of vital importance to communities in Oxfordshire and elsewhere."
Cherwell District Council also opposed the scheme, on the basis the business case was flawed and further capacity could be provided on parts of the existing network at far lower cost. Councillor Michael Gibbard, Cherwell’s lead member for planning, said: “We have always considered this project an enormous white elephant and are disappointed by today’s decision. We are not giving up. This is an early stage in the decision-making and we will work with partners to consider a challenge."
Cherwell and Oxfordshire County Council are part of the 51m group of councils who oppose the plans. Pasengers group Railfuture also expressed dismay at the decision, with chairman Mike Crowhurst saying the project was incompatible with a need to reduce CO2 emissions.
"It's disappointing that the Government cannot see the flaws in this route," he said. "We desperately need the capacity the new lines would bring, but equally we need to get it right. There's a huge environmental and energy cost in building and running an extremely straight extremely fast line, and the time savings are negligible."
VoxOpp (Villages of Oxfordshire Opposing HS2) is a campaign group set up by north oxfordshire residents to fight the proposals. Spokesperson Mark Barton said the news could have serious consequences for the county.
"While the north-east corner will inevitably suffer a property blight for at least the next 15 years - today's statement offers nothing on this - the effects of the upcoming changes in planning laws could hit all of Oxfordshire, with its wealth of beauty, very hard indeed. Those changes, intentionally or otherwise, will effectively allow much more development, which is ill-conceived and not thought through properly - just like HS2," he said.
