WARRINGTON North MP Helen Jones has pledged to fight Culcheth’s corner if the proposed High Speed rail network route (HSR2) goes through the village, slicing a local business park in two.
Helen (pictured right) addressed the Culcheth and District Rail Action Group (CADRAG) during a special meeting at the Village Club following the start of a public consultation on the proposed route of High Speed Two.
The CADRAG group are coordinating the village’s response to the “Initial Preferred Route”, which was published earlier this year by HS2 Ltd.
The consultation on the route – one which has caused widespread concern throughout Culcheth and Glazebury due to its proximity to the Linear Park and the suggested “slicing” of Taylor Business Park – continues until January 2014, during which time residents from across Warrington have the opportunity to submit comments.
Whilst not opposing the HS2 project outright, CADRAG are campaigning pro-actively for changes which avoid damaging the village and local businesses.
During the meeting, Helen explained to villagers how the current Paving Bill will progress through Parliament, and went into great detail on the procedures used in Westminster to review and decide upon the current Bill, from committee stage to Parliamentary votes. She
also talked with campaigners about the various arguments that could be put forward to strengthen Warrington’s case.
Helen also committed to tabling a number of Parliamentary questions about the effects on businesses in Culcheth if the current proposed route goes ahead.
Speaking after the meeting, Helen said: “I was delighted to meet with the CADRAG committee. The committee is a professional, well-organised group who are a credit to the village and continue to represent Culcheth and Glazebury well.
“Our meeting was a useful and engaging opportunity to discuss and review the case that can be put forward to argue for greater benefit to
Warrington if the HS2 project goes ahead. I was also pleased to be able to explain the way in which the Bill progresses through Parliament.
“I have also given my assurance that I will be asking a number of questions to Ministers about what consideration has been given to businesses in Culcheth if the proposed route for HS2 goes ahead. Last year, we saw the devastating effect that the closure of Wilton Lane had on local traders. Under these
current plans, all of the major roads in and out of Culcheth would need to be closed during the construction period. This would seriously affect the small businesses which play a vital role in providing jobs for local people, and it seems the Government has given them no consideration so far.”
Parish councillor Matt Smith, who is a member of the CADRAG committee and attended the meeting added: “It is testament to the professionalism and hard work of the CADRAG committee that they have already had high level meetings with representatives of HS2, officers from Warrington Borough Council and Helen Jones MP. These meetings have been highly productive and have aided in the development of a clear, forward thinking plan to address the HS2 proposals and the damage they will subject our villages to.
“The formal consultation on the “Initial Preferred Route” of HS2 began recently and will run until January 2014. CADRAG will be formulating a response in due course and would urge everybody in our community to respond.”
For more information on how to submit comments to the HS2 consultation, or if you want to get involved with the CADRAG group, email [email protected].
MP pledges to fight Culcheth's corner over HSR2 route
88 Comments
Share.
About Author
Gary Skentelbery
Experienced journalist for more than 40 years. Managing Director of magazine publishing group with three in-house titles and on-line daily newspaper for Warrington. Experienced writer, photographer, PR consultant and media expert having written for local, regional and national newspapers. Specialties: PR, media, social networking, photographer, networking, advertising, sales, media crisis management. Chair of Warrington Healthwatch Director Warrington Chamber of Commerce Patron Tim Parry Johnathan Ball Foundation for Peace. Trustee Warrington Disability Partnership. Former Chairman of Warrington Town FC.
8 Comments
I live a penny throw away from this site and I’m really pleased to see helen jones finally doing something for the area ,but this stinks like electioneering !
Come on mrs jones don’t treat us old folks like idiots .
Are we to conclude from this that CADRAG, being a committee that is a testament to the professionalism and hard work, supports HS2?
Unfortunately CADRAG is dominated by local politicians and vested interests who have no interest in stopping HS2. Foolishly they seem to believe that the route of the line will be moved elsewhere (to become someone else’s problem) and are working to try and influence this with the support of Helen Jones and WBC. Already HS2 Ltd have rejected a proposal from our politicians to route the line along the West Coast Main Line via Bank Quay. This would certainly limit any impact on North Warrington but for technical reasons this was a non-starter. The only way to avoid the potential destruction that HS2 will bring is to oppose it and get the scheme scrapped before £74bn is wasted on a rich man’s train.
To answer your question Tina, it certainly seems that CADRAG, Helen Jones and councillors Vobe and Smith, all support HS2. In so doing they are demonstrating a complete lack of judgement and disregard for the local communities of Culcheth, Hollins Green and Rixton, who they supposedly represent.
Helen Jones needs to step up to the mark and support the people she claims to represent. If HS2 comes to town it will be too late for the residents of North Warrington.
Helen and her local council stooges support the project for political reasons. They don’t care about the environmental damage it will cause, the communities it will destroy and the personal hardship it will cause. Many MPs have decided to stand-up and oppose the project, but not Helen Jones. She seems more intent on following her party whip and furthering her own political ambitions.
Despite significant PR from the government, there has been a growing opposition to HS2 as the fundamental flaws in the project have continued to be exposed. During the summer all of the following confirmed their opposition to the plans: Lord Mandelson, Alistair Darling, Lord Prescott, The Institute of Directors, Institute of Economic Affairs, National Audit Office, The Major Projects Authority and many, many others. In so doing they have unpicked each and every aspect of the governments rationale for the project. There is no business case, the environment will be destroyed and quite simply HS2 will not do what it’s meant to do. However Helen continues to support it!
Since Ms Jones became our MP, the Labour share of the vote in North Warrington has fallen at each election. No wonder, when we have an MP who ignores the plight of her constituents and refuses to support them.
Do the right thing Helen and oppose HS2 now, before it’s too late!
Once again Helen Jones is preventing people from speaking out about HS2 on her Facebook page. Posts that challenge her position and ask for her support have been deleted within the last 24 hours. (Evidence of this is available). A similar situation occurred earlier in the year when posts were once again deleted and at least 2 people were blocked from making further comments.
What is she scared of? She is a sham of an MP!!
Helen jones is once again proving that she is a grade A publicist .
Bring on the next election and get rid .
Spin and froth…no substance at all, and no real interest in her constituency.
John, I have refrained from responding to your posts on here, Twitter,
Facebook, etc, for some time but will make this response to clarify
the points you have raised for anybody reading this thread.
Most importantly, neither Chris Vobe or I are pulling the strings at
CADRAG. We were involved at the start as we felt it was essential that
a residents group was formed to give a voice to more people in the
village. I remember discussing with councillors at the time that our
role from then on should be one of liaison between the Parish/Borough
councils and the action group. This has been the case. At the last
meeting you attended you mentioned that many people volunteered to
work on the CADRAG committee. In the months since this time these
people have given up much of their time to attend meetings every few
weeks, develop publicity materials, deliver leaflets across the
village, research our options, develop consultation responses and the
list goes on. It is doing a great disservice to these people that you
choose to belittle their hard work by claiming that we are pulling the
strings. Highlighting this point was a primary motivation for this
reponse, all the other members of CADRAG deserve a great deal of
praise and support for the hard work, time and effort they are
committing to this cause.
Very soon after CADRAG formed it was decided that the group needed to
establish what the residents of Culcheth wanted them to do. They
surveyed numerous residents, on their doorsteps, at community day and
elsewhere, and the overwhelming majority wished the group to pursue
the removal of the section of HS2 passing Culcheth, there was much
less support for a complete “Stop HS2” position. This is therefore the
groups position, I’m sorry you seem to feel aggrieved that the groups
position does not match your own. The group has a mandate from the
people of Culcheth to pursue this approach to HS2.
For the record:
– You have never asked for my position on HS2, despite your frequent
posts on Twitter, Facebook and elsewhere stating that I support it. It
is a fact that the country needs greater capacity in its travel
networks. Any trip on the M6 will demonstrate this. However, the
proposed cost of HS2 is so high that most people must struggle to
really conceive what it represents. I am far from convinced that this
is the most efficient way to spend this money and solve our countries
capacity issues, in fact there are aspects of the arguments put
forward by those totally opposed to HS2 that I would agree with. I am
happy to see more questions being asked in Westminster regarding the
validity of a project with such astronomical costs. I have not taken a
dogmatic Stop HS2 position as I believe the best chance of mitigating
the damage these proposals would cause locally is to press for changes
to the route. There is a chance that the project will not be completed
but the driving force behind this will be a lack of support in
Westminster fuelled by spiralling costs. If I come out absolutely
against every aspect of HS2 I believe it would have little influence
on that decision when/if it is taken. So whilst I cannot say I support
HS2, I feel it is best for the people I represent to press for changes
to the proposals to avoid the damage they will cause *if* they go
ahead.
– in addition to liaising with the Parish Council, I have supported
CADRAG by delivering leaflets, surveying people, raising awareness of
the group when speaking to people on the doorstep and elsewhere,
promoting them on Community day and so on.
– your attempt at scaremongering regarding Croft and Birchwood is
unfounded, CADRAG stands for Culcheth and DISTRICT Rail Action Group.
They would like to find the best solution for ALL local residents.
– I have not been “instructed by my political leaders” on this issue
(or any other that I can think of!)
In closing, I would reiterate one point. Please respect the hard work
CADRAG members, fellow Culcheth residents with no particular political
affiliations, are putting in to defend our village against the damage
and disruption HS2 will cause. In my opinion we should all be
supporting them in whichever way we can.
Thank you,
Matt Smith.