HS2: Campaigners Take Rail Fight To High Court

By Enda Brady, Sky News Correspondent

Campaigners fighting government plans for the proposed new high speed rail link between London and Birmingham are taking their case to the High Court today.

The Government wants work to start on the £32bn project within the next three years, but must first negotiate a series of legal hurdles.

Campaign groups claim the Government is "proceeding at a reckless pace" and have said they are confident of winning a judicial review of the decision to press ahead with the scheme.

Richard Houghton, from the HS2 Action Alliance group, said: "We've raised £300,000 in the space of seven weeks to get this far.

The planned route from London to Birmingham

"There are 150,000 homes that are within a kilometre of the route and only 2% of them will qualify for compensation. How is this fair?"

Five judicial reviews are being heard at the Royal Courts of Justice in London over the next seven days.

Campaigners have asked Lord Justice Ouseley to look at the impact of the scheme on the environment, the business case made by the Government for HS2, compensation to homeowners and concerns raised by a golf club in Buckinghamshire.

They hope the £34bn project will be declared legally flawed and sent back for reconsideration.

The Government aims to have a hybrid HS2 bill read in Parliament by the end of next year, but appeals against the process could eat into that time.

The legal challenge is expected to last seven days and Lord Justice Ouseley is likely to give his decisions early in the New Year.

It is being fought in several parts. Today, a QC for 51m, an alliance of local authorities opposed to HS2, accused the Government of fundamental failures.

Nathalie Lieven QC, representing 51m, said there had been no proper environmental assessment of the impact of the "entire project".

She told the court: "It is a decision involving the purchase and demolition of hundreds of homes.

"In Camden (London) alone between 200-500 dwellings are affected. They have no idea what the figure will be north of Birmingham."

The second application for a judicial review, by HS2 Action Alliance (HS2AA), concerns the legality of compensation arrangements for homeowners living near the proposed line.

Lawyers for HS2AA say homeowners are in danger of not being properly compensated following a "fundamentally flawed" consultation process.

Chairman of the 51m group, Martin Tett, who is also leader of Buckinghamshire County Council, said: "We are doing this with immense reluctance.

"However, we feel that we have been left with not alternative.

"We cannot let the Department for Transport, with its atrocious record on managing key investment decisions, not answer for why these have been ignored."

A Department for Transport spokesman said: "HS2 will bring cities closer together, drive regeneration, tackle overcrowding and stimulate economic growth.

"While it would not be appropriate to comment on the specific claims, the Government is confident that the decisions on HS2 have been taken lawfully and fairly and it is vigorously defending these legal challenges."

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