2nd May 2019
If anyone tells you that for the UK it’s business as usual in Westminster, don’t believe them. Both government and the opposition appear to me functionally paralysed and wholly in the thrall of BREXIT. Not only is there no obvious end to BREXIT but it is becoming obvious that Wendover’s ability to put it’s argument across is suffering as a consequence. It’s getting harder to find any political figures to meet up with. An April 1st meeting, where Cheryl Gillan MP and Dominic Grieve MP were to put questions to Nusrat Ghani for Wendover, was cancelled at the last minute.
Our preparations for this meeting did give us a reason to redefine the questions that government has never answered about the Wendover Mined Tunnel proposal and its effect on the Wendover area and the county beyond.
Our big outstanding objective is to get a face to face meeting of tunnelling experts from DfT, HS2, the Main Works Contractor the Contractor and WPC and OTBE, so we asked.....
Will the Minister set up a face to face meeting where Wendover’s tunnelling experts and DfT/HS2/MWCC experts can establish the true facts surrounding this Wendover Mined Tunnel Proposal?
DfT and HS2 Ltd. have consistently fought shy of this type of meeting and yet it is they that need to save money and to solve the intractable noise, hydrogeology and environmental impacts that still dog the project through Wendover.
All of our other questions won’t fit here so you can find them on the WPC website.
Answers?
WPC does still have some other questions that remain unanswered.
1. We still have no clarity on why the OTBE report, given to David Lidington MP on the 15th of January, for onward transmission to Nusrat Ghani, didn’t arrive.
2. Our friends in Parliament have not been able to shake loose the governments own reports, supposedly created when our Mined Tunnel was considered by HMG, that we know will show that whatever was under consideration it wasn’t Wendover’s scheme.
We have asked David’s office to investigate but so far no answer.
Opportunities
Still, there are opportunities. Our lobbyist is still working to get our input into the Treasury, and particularly Liz Truss MP, prior to the Treasury revue of HS2.
The published delay to the DfT Notice to Proceed, the starting gun for construction to start, does at least mean that the Treasury Review will take place before a workforce is recruited and mobilised. Hopefully we will be able to influence the process.
It became obvious following the last Three Parishes meeting, where WPC, the Lee PC, Great Missenden and Chesham meet to be briefed by HS2 Ltd and the Contractor, that they were not intending to engage with you about the North Portal of the Green Tunnel. It’s a major structure within the AONB so we have insisted that it will be treated as such and engagement will now happen. We have also considered our need to coordinate our position on HS2 with Stoke Manderville PC and Ellesborough PC. both of whom are affected by the construction. We will be setting up a second Three Parishes Group and HS2 ltd and the Contractor will brief this group on shared issues.
Chairman, Tom Walsh