Anne Western Leader of Derbyshire County Council
The following is the full letter replying to several of our group who were distressed by her announcement last week that DCC supported the hs2 line into Chesterfield, the DCC leader says:
Thank you for your email, which is one of several I have received on this subject. I have put together the following response, which I hope answers all the issues you have raised, together with the points raised by other people.
Firstly, HS2 is a government initiative and all decisions about it will be made by parliament.
The Derbyshire County Council position is that we support investment in infrastructure that will bring economic growth to our area and that will rebalance the national economy. This doesn’t just apply to HS2. We have lobbied government for other rail investment, including Midland Mainline electrification, and improvements to major roads. The inclusion of Chesterfield within the HS2 plans means that other investment in the local rail network will follow.
Working with other councils across the East Midlands we have worked to ensure that the area around the Toton station can take maximum advantage of the economic opportunities that HS2 will bring. We have also been working on the plans for the maintenance depot at Staveley.
Both the county council and the East Midlands strategic board supported HS2’s previous preferred route, in which South Yorkshire was served by a station at Meadowhall.
The proposal for a spur to Sheffield via Chesterfield only emerged in the last few months as a direct result of HS2’s announcement not to proceed with a station at Meadowhall and was confirmed by the Secretary of State as the government’s preferred route in November.
I and the county council have significant concerns about the impact of the revised plans on the whole of Bolsover district and in particular the route chosen for the spur.
As a result, we have taken the following actions:
· We have met with Sir David Higgins, the Chair of HS2 Ltd, and other officials. They wanted the meeting to focus entirely on Long Eaton, but I insisted that we also discuss the concerns affecting different parts of Bolsover district. I also insisted that Cllr Clive Moesby, county councillor for your area, and the Leader and Chief Executive of Bolsover District Council should attend.
· In the meeting we spent considerable time discussing local concerns about the route of the spur. We asked why the obvious route, direct from Toton along the Erewash valley line had not been put forward.
· We also pressed for an additional HS2 information event to be held in Newton and they have agreed to that, as well as providing transport for people to get to the South Normanton event.
· We agreed that there will be further meetings with HS2 to press for route modifications and mitigation when they get to the detailed design stage.
· I have made sure that the East Midlands HS2 Board now has a working group looking at the impact of the route and mitigation.
· Comment has been made about Sheffield City Council lobbying for a city centre station. Neither I nor council officers have had meetings with Sheffield City Council about this. The HS2 proposal to use Sheffield Midland station is not what Sheffield City Council was lobbying for. They wanted a new station at the old Sheffield Victoria site, which has been refused because of cost. So the lobbying that they did was ineffective and hasn’t delivered the solution that they wanted.
To be clear, I do support improvements to train services from Chesterfield and I do believe that there will be jobs and growth from this. However, I am not convinced, and have never said, that taking the spur off at Hilcote is an acceptable route.
I will continue pressing for the maximum benefits for Derbyshire whilst fighting to minimise the disruption and damage.
This is the link to the government consultation webpage. The consultation closes on the 9th March. I would encourage everybody who has an interest in this matter to respond.
Kind regards,
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