Neighbours, many of them elderly, have been frightened by letters from HS2 Ltd saying it would have the right to use their properties if the hybrid bill for the line is passed into law.
People in Herlwyn Avenue, Ruislip, got the letter on Tuesday last week – just a day after the bill was deposited in Parliament – setting out how the company will be able to use the ground beneath their house or garden, the air space above their property, any rights of passage on the property and any road on the property in order to build the tunnel that would run through Ruislip if the project goes ahead.
Homes in the road were put into different categories, depending on how much of the property might be acquired by HS2.
Eighty-two-year-old Bob Steptoe and his wife, Lily, said they were frightened when the letter arrived through their door.
“It is distressing, especially for elderly people,” Mr Steptoe said. “It has been so quick, this whole HS2 process, we have been swept along with it and we have no control over it.”
Michael McNamara has lived in the road for 40 years. He said: “This letter is basically saying they can come in and they can do that they like, and there’s not a damn thing we can do about it.”
Charles and Diana Melbourne thought they had moved into a home for life in 2000. Because of poor health they would like to move into sheltered accomodation, but now fear they will never be able to sell their house to pay for it.
“This letter really shocked me,” Mrs Melbourne said. “Until now it has been one of those things that is in the future, but this makes it seem inevitable. Nobody in their right mind would buy this property now.”
Many people in Herlwyn Avenue will have the tunnel running beneath their garden; Pauline Powell has been told it will be right under her house.
“I am more worried now than if they were going to pull my house down,” she told the Gazette this week.
Christine Leonard, (pictured) who also lives in Herlwyn Avenue and is active in the campaign group Hillingdon Against HS2, said: “It makes me think why have we bothered to work so hard to buy our own homes when we have no rights over them whatsoever. [HS2 Ltd] even say they want our air space, probably for cranes. They own the air we breathe.”
The letters are dated November 25 and two days later, HS2 Ltd chief executive, Alison Munro, again wrote to neighbours.
‘Before’ and ‘after’ surveys will be conducted on homes predicted to be most at risk of settlement because of tunnel works. These will include those in Herlwyn Avenue.
Houses within 30 metres of tunnels will be included in ‘settlement deeds’, which would provide a legally binding confirmation that HS2 Ltd is responsible for addressing damage to homes caused by underground work.
The Northolt tunnel would skirt Ruislip alongside the Chiltern Line, emerging close to West Ruislip station.
HS2 Ltd declined to comment.
