A NEW petition launched by Chris Packham and campaign leaders opposed to High Speed Two (HS2) has reached more than 70,000 signatures in just five days.
The petition calls for the Government to stop wasting taxpayers’ money on HS2 and to hold a new vote to repeal the existing legislation.
Campaigners say the rapid support for the petition demonstrates the growing opposition to the project across the country.
They say every day HS2 destroys the English countryside including many formerly protected Sights of Special Scientific Interest and that the environmental claims made by HS2 Ltd. have been disproved.
They add that if the country is to reach a Net Carbon Zero emitter by 2050 the project must be abandoned.
Campaigners say:
HS2 is grossly over budget and a waste of taxpayers’ money, especially during the biggest national crisis since World War Two
HS2 is an ecological disaster and won’t help us achieve carbon neutrality by 2050
HS2 cannot be delivered on budget or on time to the specification approved by Parliament
HS2 has abused landowners up and down the line
HS2’s business case has disappeared; if Parliament were to vote on HS2 in its current form today and at the current cost and timeline, it would not approve the legislation
HS2 mislead Parliament in order to achieve the legislation for the project
Chris Packham CBE, the naturalist, television presenter, writer and campaigner said: “I’m very pleased, but frankly I’m not surprised that the petition has rocketed to 70,000 signatures in just a few days.
“HS2 is an affront to more and more people’s sensibilities, we have woken up to its wholesale inadequacies, its outrageous costs, and its disastrous impact upon the environment.
“It is a dinosaur of an idea, conceived and sanctioned in a different age, but now our climate and environmental emergencies and the horrific Covid pandemic have changed the rules of the future of life on earth, and so, sadly we are left to ask people slower on the uptake to change their minds.
“And when it reaches 100K we will have that conversation.”
Click here for the petition.
