Mike O'Brien

Mike O'Brien sets out

"Plan of Action"

to challenge High Speed Rail proposals

Mike O'Brien set out a Plan of Action to challenge the proposals for a High Speed Railway when he spoke at a meeting with residents from the North Warwickshire villages of Lea Marston and Middleton.  They villagers crammed into the small Parish Hall in Middleton on Saturday to discuss the plans for a High Speed Railway through their area.  The proposed route runs close to some of the homes in both villages and also runs through some farm properties. 

 Last Tuesday in Coleshill the MP had held the first meeting anywhere in the country on the rail line and has now held a second meeting with other communities affected by the proposed route.

 Mike said, "Many people affected by the rail line going through the area are still in shock.   I wanted to make sure people could question me about what I knew.  It also gave me a chance to hear from villagers and farmers. Most people in Middleton were opposed to the railway in any circumstances but some were prepared to support it along current rail routes."

 The MP set out a plan of action to deal with the proposals and pledged that he would challenge the proposals on behalf of local people.

 "Firstly, we need to get as much information as possible.  I will seek a public meeting with HS2 Ltd who have put together the proposals to allow people to raise detailed questions about the engineering reasons for some of the questionable parts of the proposals and why better use cannot be made of existing rail routes."

 Secondly, he promised to get together the Parish Councils and local engineers and lawyers to put together a strategy to challenge the project at the public consultation in the autumn. 

 Mike O'Brien said, "We need to challenge the business case for the project, the finances and the environmental impact on local communities.

 "Indeed, the whole argument for having a high speed railway needs to be tested," he said. "When you have Labour, the Conservatives and the Lib Dems all supporting the idea of high speed rail, the level of debate is one sided and the consultation enables us to test the arguments and see if they stack up.  After all, the up grading of the West Coast Main Line was supposed to bring a lot of economic benefits and they have not all materialised.  Where communities are blighted, the case for doing it needs to be proved.     

 "Through the summer we will need to put together the case for alterations to the line where it touches villages.  For example I think the proposals for the line near Gilson and Water Orton are very badly thought out.  I will be robustly challenging them. If we change them then it will have a knock on effect further north near Lea Marston and Middleton and we need to see what that would be.  We need to do some detailed work on alternatives ourselves and I will be dedicating much of my summer to putting together a strong case for the public consultation schedules for four months in the autumn."

 Thirdly, he said that they had to get ready for the public inquiry that would surely follow.  That could be a year away but the preparation had to begin this summer.

 At the meetings villagers challenged the case for the line saying that it only took 55 minutes to get a train from Tamworth to London, therefore the extra ten minute benefit of a line to Birmingham seemed to be a questionable investment. 

 The fourth issue was compensation.  The government are currently consulting on a new compensation scheme for people who need to move in the long 15 year period before the railway is built. 

 Mike said, "You can't lock people into their current homes without compensation for fifteen years.  It's important that people who would suffer hardship because they have to move for a job, a medical condition or simply have a bigger family are able to get compensated this year.  The consultation on these compensation proposals is already under way."

 Mike O'Brien held the meeting on a strictly non party political basis as the local MP but he said, "Look, I am aware that a General election is coming up. I will do my best to keep party politics out of this.  As a constituency MP, I want to focus on preparing a strong case we can all put to the public consultation."   Mike reached across party lines and welcomed a suggestion from local Conservative County Councillor Joan Lea who asked him to see if he could get the consultation on the route delayed.  It is currently scheduled to start in the autumn and to last for four months.  "That gives little time for us to put together our case," said Cllr Lea. 

 Mike agreed to take the issue up of delaying the consultation.  He said, "I think that's a good point but we don't want to delay people getting compensation, so let me look at that.  If we can get a few more months time to prepare, I think Joan is right, we will be able to present a stronger case for changes to the proposals."