Here’s what I think of you, Dorothy!

My thoughts on the HS2 tunnel….

Dorothy, the massive tunnel boring machine built specifically for HS2  has tunnelled a mile under Long Itchington Wood to save the precious ancient woodland. Brilliant, we must preserve our ancient woodlands, they’re disappearing far too quickly and are absolutely vital to the health of all of our ecosystems.

What they have failed to tell everyone consistently is just how many ancient woodlands they have destroyed, along with cemeteries, memorial gardens, homes and businesses. The devastation they have caused, not just to the landscape and ecosystem has been enormous and incredibly far reaching.

People’s lives and livelihoods have been destroyed, some have become suicidal and for a few it’s all been too much and they are no longer with us. All for a railway line that only stops at 2 places over it’s 100+ mile journey (HS2 Phase 1). Who will actually benefit? And their projected passenger numbers are incredibly unrealistic, a train every two minutes, who are all these passengers going to be?

I’ve looked at the business case, I’ve looked at the environmental case, in my eyes, neither stack up. Even the government have their doubts, issuing various financial alerts over the years that HS2  doesn’t represent value for money. And yet, £14b has already been spent, overall cost predicted to be over £100b, and this at a time when the whole country are struggling to survive with the cost of everything spiralling out of control.

So much could have been done with the money that would benefit so many more people, the type of people who would never be able to travel on HS2 anyway. The people on the poverty line, people who are now terminally ill because of lack of NHS resources during Covid and can’t even get to see a doctor. I believe HS2 to be immoral and, frankly, sinister. I wonder how many rich and powerful people are making even more money thanks to the construction of HS2?

Rant over.

Am I personally affected by HS2? Oh yes! I have had 13 years of dealing with HS2 and never getting a sensible answer to anything, taking land and trees that shielded us from the devastation of high winds now causing us so many issues. Causing trauma to myself and my children by using underhand tactics to get what they want with no consideration for anyone’s feelings within my already severely traumatised family.

And, yes, we are incredibly blessed to live where we live and we all appreciate it so much, we don’t take it for granted and it’s been my home for 36 years. They’re now going to take even more land and mature trees from the front of our home, something I have asked them about repeatedly over the years and they have always promised it would never happen. Now it’s going to happen, they’re not to be trusted.

HS2 has cost me a fortune and hundreds of hours of time over the years with no compensation for the distress and trauma they’ve caused, we just have to suck it up.

I’m sick of HS2, everywhere I go now beautiful trees and hedgerows have disappeared and an ugly scar hundreds of meters wide has taken their place, and they’re only just getting started.

I can’t believe that the general population aren’t up in arms about the cost and destruction of HS2, unless, of course, they believe the hype that HS2 put out… probably.

So, everyone get excited about a huge boring machine breaking through under the woods, a great feat of engineering, definitely.

But please don’t forget the human cost of HS2, because it’s enormous.