Stop HS2 campaigners, Hillingdon Council and petitioners who have spent months making a case for mitigation across the borough have hit out at HS2 Ltd’s response to the Select Committee.

Petitioners, "devastated" by HS2 Ltd’s rejection of a tunnel to ‘bury’ the high speed rail link under the Colne Valley, asked for HS2 to work with Transport for London (TfL) and Hillingdon Council to relocate the railhead to the West Ruislip London Underground (LUL) depot and for solutions to congestion and road access, such as the haul road to Harvil Road.

HS2 rejected the LUL depot on the grounds that it would “add £95m to the cost of the project" and “delay it by up to two years” but offered to construct a haul road and signalise Swakeleys roundabout to “reduce the maximum number of HGVs from 1,460 per day in to 500 per day”.

The haul road would connect at its southern end with the eastbound slip road adjacent to the A40 Western Avenue, pass through Uxbridge Golf Course and cross Harvil Road to enter the HS2 worksite.

But in a letter to Select Committee chairman, Robert Syms, Hillingdon Council leader Cllr Ray Puddifoot said: “It is extremely disappointing that HS2 Ltd has not worked in a co-operative way with Hillingdon or TfL in the way that we understood was required by the Select Committee.

“TfL’s proposals appear to have been dismissed far too readily by HS2 Ltd, without any proper objective analysis.”

“Whilst the haul road is painted in a favourable light in HS2’s document, the fact remains that TfL and Hillingdon remain to be convinced that it will solve the very real network problems due to the reliance on HGV movements.”

'Working together to make a difference'

Lottie Jones, petitioner and campaigner for Hillingdon Against HS2, said she feels “deflated” after it was “very clear, very quickly after we had finished petitioning, that it was it a foregone conclusion that they weren’t even going to even entertain the idea of a tunnel rather than a viaduct”.

She added: “Hillingdon Council and petitioners have collectively put in over six months of really hard work, collating information with all the detail and we spent hours in preparation.

“We felt, oddly enough at the time, that the committee were being sympathetic. But now we just think we’ve been duped.

Mrs Jones is frustrated that the money being spent on mitigating factors, all added up, could have instead been spent on a tunnel.

She said: “The haul road is a solution, but it doesn’t solve all the problems, it just moves the traffic around.

“On paper, HS2 Ltd makes everything sound so much better, but it’ll just totally stack up the A40, which not only affects local traffic but also one of the main routes in and out of London.

“What they’re trying to do is put sticking plasters on things when they should really come up with better solutions for us.”

The Stop HS2 campaigners are now calling on Boris Johnson and Nick Hurd to oppose the HS2 at third reading and will be contacting each London Mayoral candidate in the run-up to May’s election, they claim.

Nick Hurd, MP for Ruislip, Northwood & Pinner, said he is “still very disappointed” to not get the tunnel extension.

He said: “That was the best solution for the unacceptable disruption of HS2.

“However, it is very clear from this statement that the Committee understood the problems and have pushed HS2 into making some significant changes for the better.

“None of this would have happened if we had not all worked together to make a very good argument. All those who worked so hard on their petitions made a difference and I congratulate them.”