The leader of Staffordshire County Council says it is essential that businesses in Lichfield feel the economic benefit of HS2.
Cllr Philip Atkins’ comments come after the Queen’s Speech outlined plans for Phase 2 of the controversial high speed rail project.
The route between Birmingham and Crewe will see the line cut through parts of Lichfield and surrounding villages.
“From the outset we have made sure that Staffordshire’s communities’ voices are heard in terms of impact and mitigation of HS2,” he said. “But we want to make sure Staffordshire and local businesses share in the economic benefits too, through the development of the Handsacre Link which will see Stafford station benefit from HS2 compatible trains and through the procurement chain in delivering this project.”
Cllr Atkins also welcomed references in the Queen’s Speech to a consultation to help improve social care.
“Funding and delivering decent, long term affordable social care for a growing ageing population is an ongoing challenge for not just this county, but for the country,” he said.
“The Government acknowledged this earlier this year by announcing extra funding to help protect current adult social care service and this reference appears to reaffirm the commitment to deliver a Green Paper on this in the autumn to identify a long term solution to address this issue, which as a county council we would certainly welcome.”
Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha…funny guy.
Who says local politicians don’t have a quirky sense of humour.
Staffordshire getting economic benefits from HS2.
Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha…you’re killing me Cllr Atkins.
So Staffordshire, well particularly Stafford, benefit from storing rolling stock? I’m sure that will be very comforting to the numerous other Staffordshire villages and towns who’s only benefit of HS2 will be to observe it, as it thunders past.
The only benefit was that Tory country HQ aka Whittington GC got to preserve its facade. The rest of HS2 is a joke.
When HS2 starts it will be an HGV transport nightmare.Lichfield and surrounding areas will be invaded by construction traffic because SCC highways haven’t got a clue what to do.
http://www.l-a-g.co.uk
Even funnier, taking back sovereignty means the Tories handing the HS2 contract to foreign government firms, including China, and excluding UK firms, as they do with other infrastructure projects. The Tories HATE this country.
It’s very hard to see where the benefits will be for Staffordshire. Furthermore, it’s going to be a financial liability for UK citizens for decades to come.
Since Lord Adonis’ first plans were mooted, this railway has been a fait accompli and will bring enormous benefits for vested interests, many of which are foreign owned. Channelling British taxpayers’ money into a dysfunctional project doesn’t appear to offer value for money and the National Audit Office and the Taxpayers’ Alliance agree. Without exception, all independent critiques point to the worrying lack of accountability in terms of any cost-benefit analysis. Figures are ignored if they don’t appear to support the supposed benefits, conversely projections use inflated hypotheses to construct a rationale.
The consultation process has been perfunctory and lacking in proper engagement. Speaking with representatives of the company has been largely pointless and one can quite easily draw the conclusion that the general public is treated with contempt and disdain. It is hugely disappointing to me that parliament simply hasn’t scrutinised this properly, for were it to have done so then it would have been consigned to the Westminster bin a long time ago.