News on HS2 in Staffs

The Government has proposed some changes to the plans for Phase 2a of the railway. Phase 2a refers to the section of HS2 from Fradley, in Staffordshire, to Crewe. The proposals are currently being considered by Parliament and are contained within a hybrid Bill which will eventually provide the powers to construct and operate the railway. The latest changes are covered in what is known as an ‘Additional Provision’ to the Bill, which was deposited in Parliament today, 8 February. This is the second Additional Provision to the Phase 2a Bill, and is referred to as AP2.

The Government proposes these changes for a variety of reasons. Some are a result of agreements made between HS2 Ltd and people affected by the existing Bill, while others are because of decisions taken by the Select Committee of MPs that hears petitions (i.e objections) against the Bill. Some of the other changes have come about through design refinements, or through more information becoming available, particularly about utilities infrastructure.

AP2 includes changes along the whole line of the Phase 2a route, and also in a number of locations off-route. Anyone directly and specially affected by the changes proposed in AP2 will have the right to be heard by the Select Committee if they choose to petition.

Further information about the petitioning process is available on the House of Commons Select Committee website by clicking here.

Consultations

The significant environmental effects of the changes proposed in AP2 are reported in the Additional Provision 2 Environmental Statement (AP2 ES), which we have published today. We have also published a second Supplementary Environmental Statement 2 which sets out the likely significant environmental effects of changes to the design that do not require a change to Bill powers, and as a result of new environmental baseline information.

We are also consulting on an updated Equality Impact Assessment (EQIA) report, which considers the impact of the changes on people with protected characteristics, as defined by the Equality Act 2010.

The AP2 ES, SES2 and EQIA update report will be subject to a consultation until 23:45 on 29 March . You can find further information about these consultations by visiting www.gov.uk/hs2 .

How to respond to the consultations

If you would like to have your say on the SES2 and AP2 ES consultation, you can:

If you would like to have your say on the EQIA update report consultation, you can: