City Council continues pressure against High Speed rail line

Published: 22 October 2010

Transport Minister Philip Hammond meets HS2 protestors outside the Guildhall (5 October)

Lichfield City Council is to continue to fight the proposed HS2 high-speed rail line at Lichfield. The agenda for its Planning Committee meeting on 28 October includes a report on the meeting held with Transport Secretary Philip Hammond at the Lichfield Guildhall on 5 October, and recommends that, "continued pressure be brought to bear for the removal of the proposed HS2 viaduct section at Lichfield City".

The meeting on 5 October was attended by Michael Fabricant MP, Christopher Pincher MP, representatives from the local HS2 Action Group and from the Lichfield City and District Councils, who met with the Transport Secretary to express their opposition to the HS2 proposal.

The Report says that the main outcome of the meeting was that the Transport Secretary asked the HS2 representatives to look again at the 'viaduct' section of the route which runs by Boley Park and then through the Britannia Enterprise Park. This section connects the HS2 line to the existing West Coast Main Line, but emerging proposals for the route of the high-speed link northwards to Manchester could mean that an alternative route could be found which moved the line further from Lichfield.

City Council Leader, David Smedley, said, "It was a constructive meeting with the Minister, at which the views of the objectors were put across very clearly and very strongly. The Minister agreed to look again at the section of the route by Lichfield, but we must maintain the pressure so that our voice continues to be heard."

Report to be submitted to the City Council's Planning Applications Committee meeting on 28 October. The agenda recommendation is that "The Report be noted and that continuing pressure be brought to bear for the removal of the proposed HS2 'viaduct' section at Lichfield City'.

Download Report as PDF