Major Transport Infrastructure Construction

Greg Smith Excerpts

Friday 3rd March 2023 Commons Chamber

[Greg Smith (Buckingham) (Con)]

Among the numerous issues I have raised in this House over the past three and a bit years, there is one that stands out both for its magnitude and spread across my constituency, as well as for the number of times I have raised it: the impact of major infrastructure projects on rural areas such as mine in Buckinghamshire.

Before I come to my substantive comments, let me say that there is nothing that takes away my firmly held belief that the Government need to see sense and end the colossal waste of money, the unwanted project, ruinous on the taxpayer and destructive of communities, that is High Speed 2. However, I will focus my comments particularly on the impact that such big infrastructure projects have on the people who have to live around their construction.

Those projects are simply not designed with those impacted in mind. No community support scheme can possibly account for the upending of rural life that they bring for residents and businesses alike—and for their local elected representatives. Nothing can prepare those communities for the misery they face on a daily basis.

A substantial element of that misery comes from the appalling state in which these projects have left the rural roads network. I am grateful to my hon. Friend the Minister for coming to see that for himself the other week. Those roads are a lifeline for my constituents to reach work, schools and hospital appointments, yet in places they remain impassable and present a clear risk to all road users.

It is no coincidence that the worst roads are concentrated around the construction compounds, being pounded every day by heavy goods vehicles in volumes and with loads that they were not built to handle. Yet the meagre funds that these projects have been willing to contribute towards their repair, after much wrangling by me, my hon. Friend and neighbour the Member for Aylesbury (Rob Butler) and Buckinghamshire Council, do not even scratch the surface. I am grateful that East West Rail recently agreed to fund the resurfacing of a number of roads in north Buckinghamshire, but there is a huge way to go yet.

That is far from being a good neighbour. Good neighbours clear up after themselves. It is clear that the damage we are seeing could only have come from the constant churn of HGVs in and out of these compounds—compounds that have swallowed up huge amounts of arable land, depriving countless farmers of their livelihoods. To make matters worse, the project’s contractors and management have treated them with contempt, from flooded fields to unpaid bills, unannounced visits and unbelievably long waits for answers to basic questions such as, “When will you come to clear up the litter that your contractors have strewn across my driveway?”

Indeed, the approach taken by these projects to land acquisition has been poor at best, inadequate at worst. In any case, the land taken from hard-working farmers is land unlikely to be returned in its previous productive state. No one at the project can say when, or how much of, the land taken from farmers under supposedly temporary possession—we all remember income tax was meant to be temporary—will be given back. To any farmer, this signals the end of the road. How can anyone possibly run a business having lost their main asset without knowing when it will be returned?

With every delay the project incurs, another farm risks going under. Over time, this has a devastating effect on the local rural economy, which is underpinned by farming through employment and the custom they bring. Take the Gosses in Quainton, who have been kept waiting months for answers on whether their land will in fact be split in two; or Deanne Wood in Twyford and Andy Hunter in Fleet Marston, both of whom have suffered terrible flooding as a result of HS2’s poor monitoring. Robert Withey’s father sadly passed away under the enormous stress and anxiety caused by the project taking over the family farm. Then there is Joseph Hodges, whose land lies not just in the railway’s path but where the enormous infrastructure maintenance depot will be built in the coming years, a facility which has no place in such a rural location, taking vast swathes of agricultural land away from those who depend on it.

Regardless of what sort of affected business we are talking about, the project has no means to compensate them. What were the proponents of the scheme thinking? It is well established that major infrastructure projects rarely run to time or budget. HS2 takes that to a whole new level, yet has no means to compensate those who have materially suffered under its weight. One example is the Prince of Wales pub in Steeple Claydon, a village which is surrounded by compounds on all sides. With so much construction concentrated in one small area, the seemingly endless road closures that each project supposedly requires have a knock-on effect for businesses that rely on customers travelling between villages, as well as for the hardworking employees of those businesses. When East West Rail shut Queen Catherine Road and HS2 shut Addison Road last year, the Prince of Wales lost approximately £3,000 in turnover a week, which is massive for any small village pub. That is on top of the 50%, 60% and 70% increases in gas and electricity bills we have seen recently. It is further estimated that the upcoming closure of Addison Road from February to the end of July this year will cost that pub another £50,000 in lost revenue, but no compensation is on the table.

The risk of businesses being caught in a perpetual cycle of endless road closures therefore goes far beyond the business itself. It deprives residents of long-standing community assets without any recompense or even so much as an acknowledgement of how devastating such losses are. Take Andy and Dan Price’s coach company Langston & Tasker, whose business by nature relies on the local road network to operate. A contracted provider of school transport for Buckinghamshire Council, they have also been caught in the road closure shuffle. Any roads they use risk covering their vehicles in mud or even often ripping tyres off their rims, yet they, too, have never been compensated for any of the damage undoubtedly caused by both HS2 and East West Rail’s construction vehicles. All the while, schoolchildren continually turn up late, having been kept waiting at the bus stop while HS2 and East West Rail HGVs come speeding past, putting at risk anyone unlucky enough to come face to face with a driver who is more interested in putting his own schedule above the safety of other road users.

For Langston & Tasker, Andy and Dan are having to deal with huge diversions, all of which put significant strain on company finances through added fuel cost and wear and tear: Buckingham Road closed, an additional 92 miles a day, or 460 miles a week; West Street closed, an additional 110 miles a day, or 550 miles a week; Queen Catherine Road closed, an additional 20 miles a day, or 100 miles a week on the bottom line for that bus company; and West Street and Queen Catherine Road closed, an additional 182 miles a day, or 910 miles extra per week for that company. That costs fuel, that costs tyres, that costs them their business.

Behind the scenes, the project’s directors have clearly lost control of their contractors, with one going so far as to seek planning permission for a training centre near Twyford, now downgraded to a storage facility, which I am extremely disappointed to report to House has been granted by the Planning Inspectorate. How on earth can a contractor be allowed to seek permission for something not in the Act, something so substantial and unsuitable for a rural environment, something so close to residents, on top of all the existing disruption that HS2 has brought on this community? This sets the worrying precedent for all rural communities that HS2 or any other major infrastructure project will happily let their contractors, which clearly have no regard for local residents and businesses, run rampant without so much as a slap on the wrist. This simply must change. The presumption must change and be flipped from what is convenient for the contractor to what is in the interests of the local people.

Our roads have suffered under the project’s weight. Across the network we are seeing key routes fall into seemingly terminal decline—key routes that have been taken over by HGVs going to and from compounds. Whether it is HS2, East West Rail or, frankly, any other project making use of the local road network, expectations have not remotely met reality. That is a prime example of the failure to account for the cumulative impact of multiple major infrastructure projects.

Another issue is the enormous burden that these projects place on our local authority—Buckinghamshire Council. Bucks council has valiantly stepped up to the plate and pushed back against these mega-projects when the plans—whether it be road closures, safety concerns over bridges, or unwarranted and, at times, illegal hedgerow or tree removal, harm the interests of residents and businesses across my constituency and the whole country. Time and again critical information has been withheld from the council by HS2 and East West Rail relating to road closures, traffic management and a whole host of other key aspects of construction. All too often the projects do not even talk to each other, let alone the council. That is all to the cost of our council tax payers. Fundamentally, the council should not be put in this position in the first place. The council has been forced to direct more and more resources to deal with something, in the form of HS2, that it did not want in the first place. Certainly, with East West Rail, however much benefit there may be from that particular railway and a new station at Winslow, whenever they happen to be delivered, it simply cannot be worth the detrimental state that contractors have left our entire area in during the process.

Even to this day, HS2 and East West Rail claim they are good neighbours. Yet, just this morning, I learned from residents of Comerford Way and McLernon Way that the track-laying train is due to arrive between 10 pm and 4 am right at the back of their houses. The disruption from that will be immense. No one should have to put up with all these issues from the projects, from cracked foundations in their homes, flooded fields where their crops once grew, roads that become impassable with potholes, and intimidating behaviour from the projects’ security teams. I could go on, but these problems cannot; they must be tackled head-on.

All major infrastructure projects based in rural areas must recognise their impact on local communities and take their responsibilities seriously. The Department for Transport must recognise this glaring flaw. Countless businesses in my constituency are demanding compensation for unreasonable and unfair treatment from all levels of the project, from contractors to senior management. No one has been willing to step up and take responsibility for the human impact that this ever-worsening situation is causing. Indeed, HS2 and East West Rail are both operating in isolation from reality—the reality of people’s lives and livelihoods, of public safety, of businesses going under, and of billions of pounds of taxpayers’ money that the project is consuming. That cannot be allowed to continue.

As we see in the news today talk of delays and ways to try to claw back some of that money, I urge the Minister, when he responds, to give a cast iron guarantee from that Dispatch Box that, as those cuts and delays are looked at, not one cut and not one delay will impact on my constituents or anyone affected by the construction of this project, not least in the mitigations that have been promised, such as the bund at Twyford. This project, HS2, East West Rail and all other infrastructure projects must be held better to account, and they must decide to change their behaviour in favour of local people and away from their own convenience.

[Mr Deputy Speaker (Mr Nigel Evans)]

Mr Butler has been given permission by the Member in charge of the Adjournment debate and the Minister responding to make a short contribution, and I have been informed.