VOLUNTEERS from CPRE, the countryside charity, who spoke to members of the public at the Cheshire Show reported a lot of interest and concerns in HS2.
Many visitors questioned the justification for the plans, with their potentially negative impact on wildlife and biodiversity in the area, as well as implications for traffic, road closures, and loss of tranquility.
While some visitors were celebrating the fact that the Golborne Link has now been removed from the plans, others questioned the value of the project and expressed concerns at the local effect that HS2 will have. The MP for Tabley, Esther McVey, has also made her opposition to the plans very clear, commenting in the HS2 debate on 20th June, ‘What we need… is reliable, digital infrastructure…. Along with better local transport links and an east-west line across the north of England’.
Andrew Needham, Vice-Chair of CPRE Cheshire, commented ‘As proposed, the route for HS2 will run right through the showground. Several MPs in the North highlighted serious misgivings about the project in the recent debate. These were reported on the CPRE stand at the Cheshire Show, which generated a lot of interest.’
CPRE has repeatedly urged the Government to increase investment in strategic rail to tackle unsustainable car travel dominance and its associated negative impacts, such as greenhouse gas emission, congestion, air, and noise pollution leading to high incidence of respiratory disease and early death. However, the plans for HS2 bring a number of problems and environmental impacts including, among other critical issues, harm to tranquillity, landscape character, visual amenity, and ecology.
