Camden Council's response to latest HS2 update

18/02/2020

On 11 February, the Prime Minister announced that the building of High Speed 2 (HS2) will go ahead. Alongside this decision, the Government published the Oakervee Review, an independent review which examined the future of the project. Councillor Danny Beales, Cabinet Member for Investing in Communities and an Inclusive Economy, issued a response to this announcement on behalf of Camden Council. In his response, he said:

"We never wanted this scheme in Camden because we knew it would put our community through years of upheaval, disruption and blight. The area around Euston has already been changed forever. HS2 has displaced residents from their homes and long-established businesses have shut. We’ve lost our treasured green spaces and Euston has become a building site, cutting off our communities from one another.

"While the Government has given the green light to HS2, the findings of the Oakervee review have revealed significant problems with how change at Euston has been managed – and our communities have felt the worst of these impacts.

"We welcome the Government’s recognition of the challenges that development has presented at Euston. We need a single plan for Euston, integrating the existing railway station with the planned HS2 station. We are clear that a joined-up approach to station design and delivery is essential, and we expect to be a full and equal partner of this approach."

Read Councillor Beales' full response here.