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A new protective barrier that will shield rare bats from high-speed trains will cost a whopping £100m and is being built near Sheephouse Wood in Buckinghamshire, a regulatory requirement that HS2 is honouring to appease Natural England. Bats are protected by law in the UK, so the 1km curved barrier will cover the tracks alongside Sheephouse Wood near Calvert to prevent them from being disturbed by high-speed trains. There is, however, “no evidence that high-speed trains interfere with bats,” as per the current HS2 Chairman’s opinion.
Sir Jon Thompson, HS2’s Chairman, told a rail industry conference the expensive bat-protection structure was needed following regulatory concerns. He referred to the project as a “shed.” Natural England said that it did not require HS2 to “adopt this structure,” but its role had been to comment on whether the proposed mitigations will work.
Other expensive options, such as re-routing the railway and a bored tunnel, were also considered. After receiving the green light from Natural England, HS2 was forced to spend “hundreds of thousands of pounds” on environmental specialists and lawyers because the local council did not approve the work, Sir Jon said. Buckinghamshire Council opposes HS2 and has criticised it for “unnecessarily damaging Sheephouse Wood.”
Sir Jon believes that the problem of spending too much on infrastructure projects is an authentic issue in the UK. He emphasised the extent of HS2’s activities and the obstacles it has to deal with, obtaining 8,276 consents from other public bodies to construct phase one of the railway between London and Birmingham. Natural England’s Chief Operating Officer, Oliver Harmar, stated that “development and nature must go hand in hand.” He also said that “HS2 Ltd is required by legislation to avoid harm to the environment, and it is for them to make choices, consider risks, and factor in costs when deciding how to do this, whether by avoiding species and sites protected for nature or by investing in mitigation to limit harm where the route passes through sensitive sites.
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