Residents Give Overwhelming Thumbs Down To Labour’s High Speed Rail Route

Hundreds of angry residents filled Coleshill Town Hall last night to express their concerns over the recently published High Speed Rail route, which would see houses demolished and the villages of Gilson, Water Orton and Middleton badly affected.

During a public vote over the plans, not one single person voted in favour of the Government's plans as published. Residents were split between seeking to throw the whole plan out, and seeking to amend the plans to have less of an impact on local villages.

Former soldier and Conservative Parliamentary Candidate Dan Byles attended the meeting, and was surprised at the complete lack of communication to those who could see their houses knocked down. He criticised Labour MP Mike O'Brien for not doing more to represent local people's interests earlier in the process.

Dan said: "The mood of the meeting was quite tense, with people angry at the government's planned route, but eager to learn what if anything could be done.

"But one or two points really stood out in my mind.

"Firstly, I was staggered that people whose houses have been earmarked by the Government for demolition, such as those living on Attleborough Lane in Water Orton, only found out by looking at the maps online. How difficult would it have been for the Government to ensure they had the courtesy of a personal letter from the Transport Minister?

"Secondly, it seems that our local Labour MP has been asleep on the job. He admitted that he only asked the Transport Minister Lord Adonis a few weeks ago whether these plans - which have been under consideration since January 2009 - would affect his constituency. That really is beyond belief.

"What is the point of having a Labour minister as our local MP if he makes no attempts to find out what is happening during the planning process, and to fight for his constituents' interests from the start? He apparently waited until the plans were completed before taking any interest at all.

"Given Mr O'Brien's record on pretending that his own Government's policies are nothing to do with him - such as over Post Office closures or the Government's unsustainable house building targets - I can't help but thinking that perhaps he didn't want to know?

"Perhaps he thought it would be safer for him politically to remain ignorant of the Labour Government's preferred route - so that he could do as he did at the Town Hall meeting: stand up and play dumb. It's frankly not good enough.

"And what about the General Election? The Conservatives are committed to High Speed Rail - but we have made it very clear that we will not be bound by Labour's preferred route. So if the Conservatives win the election there will be everything to play for in having this route looked at again. And if I should be elected as the local MP, I will not sit back quietly and wait until the route is decided, as our current Labour MP has done. I will get stuck in on day one of the planning process, fighting for the interests of my constituents from the start."