VILLAGERS have expressed alarm – but also hope – at the findings of a new report which suggests that the controversial HS2 rail line could be at risk from old salt mines in the Warrington area.
A report for HS2 Ltd – the company overseeing the project – has identified five sites near Lymm where there is a high risk of subsidence and another 14 where there is also a risk.
The report has also been received with concern at Culcheth where there could be a risk of subsidence due to a former tip, coal mining and peat moss.
Lymm councillor Ian Marks said: “This is frightening… the route through Cheshire has already been changed to avoid salt mines but why has it taken until now to find out about the risk in Lymm?
Ian Marks
“The parish council has just sent off its response to the HS2 consultation.
“We welcomed the move of the rolling stock depot from Golborne to near Crewe. This removed one of the reasons for having the link/spur to the east of Warrington. People have differing views about the merits of HS2, but most people object to this link. We think it is a waste of money and will have a detrimental effect on the environment in our village. HS2 claims the link is needed to access routes to the north and Scotland.
“We strongly support Warrington Council’s campaign to upgrade the existing line from Crewe to Warrington and create an upgraded station at Bank Quay.
“This alternative would have the big advantage of linking in with the proposed east/west so-called HS3 route and support Warrington’s role in the Northern Powerhouse. I just hope this new finding will persuade HS2 Ltd to think again and avoid the eastern route through Lymm and Culcheth. Safety is of over-riding importance and HS2 should now get behind Warrington Council’s upgrade proposal.”
Keith Bland
At Culcheth, Cllr Keith Bland said: “If the route has to be amended at Lymm it could make a big difference at Culcheth, which stands to suffer even more seriously from the project.
“But it is not only old salt mines which could cause problems. The current route runs through part of the old Silver Lane tip at Risley where there could be all sorts of subsidence problems.
“We also suffer from subsidence caused by mining from the former Parkside Colliery and we also have a lot of peat moss, which is not an ideal base for a high speed railway.
“This just seems like another reason for abandoning the spur line that runs through Culcheth and Lymm and which many people don’t think is needed anyway.”
HS2 Ltd say the new report is part of ongoing consultation in Cheshire.
6 Comments
If the HS2 project team has not accommodated the presence and influence of disused coal mines and a sizeable area of peat moss in the Culcheth area, in its trackway design and realignment, more than the heads of a few lowly (but no doubt very well paid) section engineers should roll.
The original line was operated for a century with no subsidence problems. The alignment is clear from Timperley to Wigan and includes a high-level crossing of the ship canal. It makes sense to connect to the West Coast Main Line from Manchester as the existing main line is full to capacity at peak times. Strategically, this route makes sense.
There must be some technical imponderables because HS2’s own experts have confirmed what an external geotechnical investigation has concluded. I agree with you on the interface with the WCML, but not because alleged peak time excess capacity. The government’s own figures, wrung from them during a judicial review, disproved that myth amongst many other purported benefits of HS2. It was and will remain a project driven by vanity.
In addition to ‘vanity’ I would add ‘greed’ as a driving force. There are some who will be making mega profits from this public funded project. A list of who these people are would be interesting.
It never had and still does not have a sound business case to justify spending so much, much needed elsewhere, money at a time when we are all being told to tighten our financial belts. We hear almost daily of the inadequacies of the rest of our rail network, which is in urgent need of improvement and upgrading, and has been for decades. If half of the resources of HS2 were used for that purpose, more people would be able to use our railways to travel across and throughout the country more comfortably, speedily and reliably.
how Warrington council ever gave planning permission for all those houses to built on the old salt works and mines at Heatley god only knows but then money speaks louder than words the more houses the more revenue for the council an old councillor from lymm told me at least 15 years ago that that land at heatley was red belt land and should never be built on but what would he know born and brought up in lymm when the salt mines were working he was almost 90 when i went to him