THE Government’s decision to proceed with the now infamous HS2 ‘spur’ is a real blow to people in Warrington.

Although the route has been moved slightly, which will come as a great relief to many people in Culcheth, it will still be devastating for Hollins Green and for the Wigshaw Lane area.

This has happened despite the site of the stock depot moving from Golborne to Crewe yet we were originally told that the site of the depot was one reason for the spur.

Through questions, in debates and in a special debate on the impact on Warrington, I have repeatedly questioned the Government on its plans.

The costings for the ‘spur’ have been called into question, thanks to a great deal of work by one of my constituents.

The minister even admitted, in that debate, that I ‘raised valid points’ which would be reviewed.

Yet they wouldn’t change their minds.

I wonder why when the decision makes no sense. If Crewe is being developed as a hub station and the stock depot is to be located there then it makes sense to join the West Coast Main line north of Crewe, rather than north of Warrington.

As it stands Hollins Green and Culcheth will suffer huge disruption, residents will see their properties blighted and Warrington gets nothing in return.

We will not have a station on the HS2 line and we therefore could end up with a worse service to London than we have now.

At present there are trains every hour which reach London in under two hours. I wouldn’t bet on that continuing when HS2 starts operating.

In fact, a better investment for the north would be a fast East-West line, the so-called HS3 which would connect Warrington with major cities across the north.

So far that seems a distant prospect but in the meantime we have a Government which ignores the evidence and refuses to listen to Warrington.

  •  For those interested a close up map of the route can be found at google.com/maps/d/viewer?mid=13IoaZV57s03ZgYLVoSeYn5_RHAc.