HOW TO RESPOND TO THE ES DOCUMENT
Aside from our celebrity HS2 television appearances, The Hyde Heath Village Society have been working very steadily over Christmas and New Year to provide a detailed response to the Final Environmental Statement – we are indeed reading 50,000 pages (only another 15,000 to go!).
This response is necessary to ensure the Village Society can petition to the HS2 Hybrid Bill*.
Petitioning is likely to commence sometime after May 2014 and we must be prepared.**
Many of your fellow village members have been working extremely hard on an Environmental Statement [ES] response to ensure we protect our schools and community institutions, keep our roads safe and protect, as far as possible, our countryside and way of life.
You can help also, anyone affected by HS2 (ie. anyone within Hyde Heath or wider area) can petition Parliament. Members of HHVS will be on hand to assist you with your petition should you choose to have your “day in Court”. Meantime, the starting point is to make a response to the ES to allow you to have grounds for a petition.
HHVS will produce in the next 10 days a summary guide to points you may wish to petition on – we will issue it as a leaflet and online. Meantime, Great Missenden Stop HS2 Action Group has already agreed how the local action groups in the Central Chilterns Community Forum area will be responding to the ES - HHVS have provided input in all meetings. They are planning to discuss their conclusions at an open area meeting:
“Responding to the HS2 Final Environmental Statement”
Great Missenden Memorial Hall
at 5pm on Sunday 12th January 2014
The more responses submitted, the stronger the message will be on the unsuitability of HS2 and the extension of the tunnel as the only acceptable form of mitigation in the Central Chilterns.
A final thought, some people think HS2 is inevitable. Some people are getting tired of the endless documents and consultations. That is precisely the aim of the Hs2 Company, to wear us down and make us give up! To give you hope, during the petitioning process, substantial sections of the HS1 route through Kent were moved. YOU HAVE TO BE IN IT TO WIN IT! See you all on the 12th and/or look out for our summary leaflet on how Hyde Heath folk should respond to the ES.
Wishing you all a fantastic 2014!
* The High Speed Rail (London – West Midlands) Bill has been designated as a hybrid bill. ** Following Second Reading, hybrid bills are committed to a select committee to allow those affected by the Bill to petition against aspects of the Bill to which they object.
