THIS past weekend, Harvil Road in Harefield was closed so HS2 could chop down the trees that lined the road. 

While HS2 do not have permission to issue contracts for constructing the railway, they still have the power to wreck everything on the proposed route.

That's even though they don’t actually know exactly where that route is!

So, while it may seem a bit bloody-minded to any rational person to carry on with the destruction, it suits HS2 and all their vested-interest contractors to devastate as much of the countryside as they possibly can.

It's in the perverse hope that more preparation work and money spent now will make it less likely the whole project is cancelled.

So far, Colne Valley and its surrounding area has borne the brunt of the destruction as work in this area seems to be a year or more ahead of everywhere else on phase one.

HS2 have broken environmental assurances they gave in Parliament, claimed the bats they listed in their earlier environmental statement weren’t there any more and have failed to provide an assessment of the risk their drilling poses to the water supply.

This is all a stark warning of what is to come if HS2 is not cancelled for communities elsewhere on the line.

Last week, Bucks County Council joined Aylesbury Vale and Chiltern district councils in calling for all work to cease, pending HS2 getting (or hopefully not getting!) notice to proceed.

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On top of that, 41 town and parish councils have signed a joint letter asking for exactly the same thing.

If you saw the February Dispatches programme on Channel 4 about HS2, it presented some stark home truths about the problems with rail transport in the North of England, and the upward spiralling cost estimates of the HS2 project.

It also presented the obvious solution to both problems – cancel HS2 and divert the funding to desperately-needed rail transport improvements in the North.

Dispatches also highlighted there is a massive difference of opinion within the rail industry about whether HS2 is worth pursuing, with many experts coming down against it. 

It demonstrated just how little support there is for HS2 among the public, both in the results of a poll and reaction to the programme.

Three former ministers have slated HS2 in Parliament, while the chief executive of HS2 has tried to say they’ve “always said” they wouldn’t know what the costs would be until the contractors were in place.

The cost estimate has now increased to £56bn and I, like so many people in the UK, continue to believe HS2 is really not in the best interests of taxpayers.

Please help spread the facts about HS2, to help get the project cancelled and funds diverted to rail improvements in the North.

Jonathan Rackowe

Ealing W5