Government is putting aside £30M to placate communities and businesses along the route of the High Speed 2 railway.

A Community & Environment Fund and a Business & Local Economy Fund will provide grants for public projects and nature conservation initiatives between London and Birmingham on phase one of the scheme.

Transport Minister Robert Goodwill said: "It is only right we do all we can to help those living and working close to this vital railway."

But the leader of Buckinghamshire County Council has described the funding announcement as disappointing. 

Councillor Martin Lett, who also leads the 51m alliance of 18 local authorities opposed to the scheme, said: "I wrote to the Prime Minister several months ago asking to work with the Government to pull together a locally administered Community and Benefit Fund which would make a real difference to the lives of those affected.

“The 51m alliance has been working on a figure for a proposed fund based of just £1M per kilometre for the Phase one route, that would be £230M. This may sound like a lot but not compared to the project cost of £50Bn."

♦ At a hearing of the House of Lords Economic Affairs Committee on Tuesday the former Chancellor Lord Lawson pointed out that much of the economic case for High Speed 2 is based on faster journeys.

"But are these faster journeys from station to station or from door to door," he asked. "Because what matters to people is the door to door time, of which the station to station time is only a part."

He added that stations sited away from centres of population will lead to greater overall journey times. "It seems to a layman like me much easier for a businessman to do useful work on the train but not on the way to or from a station," he added.

(Photo: HS2)

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