High Speed (6)  

I have just come off the phone after a ten minute conversation with the Transport Secretary, Lord Adonis.   He accepted straight away that the route he has proposed for HS2 would have a damaging impact on my constituency and the lives of many local residents. He told me that he had personally travelled up and down the line of each of the route options that had been considered by the Government.   He accepted that the A413 route would mar the Chilterns AONB but said that the southern route option would have involved a viaduct across the Hughenden Valley and his judgement was that this would have disfigured the landscape far more. We talked a lot about the impact of the proposed route on people living on the western side of Aylesbury.     Lord Adonis said that he had ordered the route moved further away from houses than had originally been suggested.   He promised me that the...