Hillingdon residents were struck with another blow of ‘utter disappointment’ after the House of Commons reject a number of proposals put forward for HS2 mitigation.

The report, published on Monday (February 22), came after nearly 1,600 petitioners, including Hillingdon Council and residents of the borough, gave evidence to suggest changes to lower the impact of the high speed rail link on those living nearby.

The committee, chaired by Mr Robert Syms MP, have stuck by HS2 Ltd plans for a viaduct across the Colne Valley, disregarding a tunnel due to cost, and has dismissed an alternative haul road put forward by members of the The Drive and Harefield Place Estate Residents Association.

They have however, offered to consider an alternative haul road route by the London Wildlife Trust and pledged to take the Heathrow spur of HS2 out of the bill, bringing some relief to campaigners.

Lottie Jones, of Hillingdon Against HS2, said: “It’s in print now that the Heathrow spur can’t be built as part of Phase One or Phase Two - so that’s a main positive.

“That is directly what we were asking for. Overall though, it’s utterly disappointing.

“We weren’t expecting many changes in the final report, but we had hoped that the committee would think again more about the effects on Hillingdon.

“They seem to be steering HS2 Ltd into committing themselves to do more to mitigation on traffic and look again at the haul road.”

The report findings state that: “The ability of Swakeleys roundabout to cope safely with construction traffic is critical. It is apparently already in breach of EU air quality limits.”

'Enormous number of HGVs'

MPs Boris Johnson and Nick Hurd asked for a cap of 550 HGV movements per day, which has been agreed.

But Mrs Jones, who petitioned individually as well as a member of Hillingdon Against HS2, believes the traffic issue hasn’t been dealt with.

She said: “As far as they’re concerned, we aren’t on the construction route.

“We know that there will be displaced traffic - they’ve reduced the lorry numbers down to 550 which was a cap that was suggested by us.

“But that’s still an enormous number of HGVs trundling through Ickenham.”

Mr Hurd, MP for Ruislip, Northwood and Pinner, believes the Committee were “wrong to dismiss the idea of a tunnel” extension to protect the area from HS2.

He said: “However, this report is helpful in signalling clearly to Parliament that more needs to be done to find an acceptable Hillingdon solution - not least for the chronic road problem.

“Our petitioning has clearly influenced the Committee and I congratulate all residents who gave evidence.

“I will now be pushing for acceptance of the recommendations that help the area and for delivery on assurances already given by HS2.

“After many years of campaigning, it feels like we are making some progress now. However the fact is that we do not yet have an agreed mitigation solution - so the work continues.”

HS2 Ltd now has until May to prove that its traffic mitigation, the haul road through Uxbridge Golf Course, is the best option for Hillingdon.

Select Committee has 'let us down'

Meanwhile, the next stage in the passage of the bill is the Third Reading, whilst petitioners prepare for the House of Lords.

Mrs Jones added: “From a campaign point of view, we now will be looking to the Lords.

“The Commons Select Committee have let us down and they haven’t really understood the sheer magnitude of thing in Hillingdon and if they have, then they’ve chosen not to mitigate it in the best way possible.”

Stop HS2 Manager Joe Rukin, who oversees the national campaign says the communities along the route have been “largely ignored”.

He said: “We can only hope the House of Lords take our concerns more seriously when petitioning there starts in a couple of months.

“Besides asking for a couple of extra studies here and there, they have very much decided that the big issues petitioners brought up are irrelevant and that HS2 Ltd can be trusted.

“People who have had to deal with HS2 Ltd over the last six years have been ignored and downtrodden, but after hearing over a thousand people repeat that point over the last two years, the MPs have decided that HS2 Ltd can be trusted.”