HS2, the proposed high-speed rail link between London and the north of England, has been called off by the UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak. The project had faced years of opposition, with some criticising its cost and impact on local communities. For those like Roly Bardsley, who lives in Stanthorne, Cheshire, the impact of HS2 has been devastating. Bardsley said the planned route came within 40 yards of his home and that an additional bypass would have left the place on “an island with no means of access”.
Bardsley learned of the planned route when he received a letter containing a map of the line. After being denied a compulsory purchase order, he said he had “lost everything”. He tried to sell his home, but estate agents laughed at him. “It was blighted forever,” he said. “I would have had trains travelling at 240 miles an hour every 12 minutes, 40 yards from my window.” At the same time, Bardsley’s business got into financial difficulty. He was forced to sell the property and his business folded within months. “Now that HS2 is not going to happen, it has destroyed lives,” he said.
The UK government had allocated £36bn to HS2, but Sunak announced at the Conservative Party conference in Manchester that this money would be reinvested into other northern rail and road schemes. “Development happens,” said Bardsley, “and I was expecting clean answers, a solution and to move on. To be at war for that amount of time, it cost everything I had.” Despite the impact of the project on his own life, Bardsley said he supported the levelling up of the North and said the plan to put Leeds and Manchester and London all within an hour of each other was “fantastic”.
The Department of Transport has not commented on Bardsley’s situation, but for those like him who have been negatively impacted by the project, the decision to scrap HS2 means their communities can begin the process of recovery and rebuilding. While the cost of the project has been a point of contention, for those whose homes and livelihoods were on its path, the human cost has been far greater
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