HS2: our homes are not for rail

Last night a packed meeting on Regent’s Park estate in Camden discussed how the new High Speed Rail link, HS2, was going to effect the local community.

Even in one borough there is to be a significant impact on people’s lives. Across Camden 213 families are to have their homes demolished and 264 families’ homes are at risk of demolition.

The famous Drummond Street curry houses are desperately worried that there will a blockade of building works over the course of at least four years between them and where most of their custom comes from, essentially killing off an entire street of businesses that have been trading their for decades.

Frank Dobson, the local MP, outlined some of the heavy building work that has to take place in Camden. He passionately railed, to much applause, about how every time he heard about the issue in the national media they made out it was only people in the Chilterns that were concerned about the issue.

He distributed a list of ‘minimum guarantees’ that he believed residents were entitled to. These included that;

• everyone who had to be relocated was offered genuinely suitable alternative accommodation
• they should not have to wait in temporary accommodation while something was found.
• all such homes should be in the area if that is what the resident wants.
• all council tenants should remain council tenants.
• the council should remain the landlord if the resident desired.
• nothing should effect security of tenure.
• the move should not be used as an excuse to increase rents or service charges.

There was also a useful presentation from the council’s Edward Watson on timetables and some of the technicalities. This included important facts that, no matter what happened, there would be no building works until 2017 and the earliest date for completion would be 2026 (if it was on time).

Cross Party support

It’s an interesting fact that despite the fact that Labour were the only party  represented on the platform there is cross party consensus in Camden against HS2 from Labour, Lib Dems, Conservative and Green councillors. However, nationally Labour launched HS2 and the Conservatives rubber stamped it. As Frank Dobson said in the meeting Labour’s Shadow Minister “Maria Eagle has not yet seen sense”.

However, what was also clear was that those attending the meeting were becoming increasingly restless with the parade of various councillors, London Assembly Members and partymen who were all  determined to show their support, sometimes in long rambling contributions.

This is perhaps not a criticism of any of them individually but st to recognise that there is a collective responsiblity  to allow residents to speak about an issue that effects them directly. After all no London Assembly member will be thrown out of their home because of HS2 while perhaps more than a hundred of the people attending would be.

Contributions from the floor

There were a good number of contributions from the floor, all fiery. One resident, Ursula, talked about the loss of affordable housing, the problems for the local community the building would cause and talked about how private developers were going to  be making a killing out of the community’s misery.

She expressed exasperation that Euston had been chosen at all, which was backed up by Tim Stockton who described how if the HS2 works stopped at Old Oak Common (a planned station connecting Crossrail, the Great Western and HS2) it would not only avoid the expense and pain of the demolition of swathes of Camden, actually most travellers would not notice any difference with only selected journeys on the Victoria Line taking any longer than the proposed route which stops at Euston (a station they have no plans to improve). So it seemed unlikely that running into Camden would produce any time benefit at all.

One woman, Ira, asked how it was possible for the council to balance arguing to stop the project and the arguments to make sure residents were treated fairly and  the worst aspects of the plan was improved.

A couple of traders talked about how the uncertainty was already a problem for their businesses and one woman said that her home was already ‘blighted’ so she’d be unable to move because of the proposals. This was less of a worry about house prices and far more about how having demolition hanging over her leased home made it unsalable, leaving her stuck even if she wanted to move. This “blight” was already effecting the ability to fill vacant shops and garages.

Some residents made campaigning suggestions including facebook pages, window posters and a giant hoarding saying ‘Camden says no to HS2’ which one local councillor bravely said she’d try to take forward. Good luck to her. Overall there was a feeling that the people in the room were not going to be listened to by the government unless they made a noise. Indeed when richer parts of London complained the government agreed to build a tunnel under the entirety of their borough – no such luck on this working class estate.

The highlight of the evening came from veteran campaigner and Labour councillor Roger Robinson whose shouted contribution from the door about rent strikes, militancy, and Labour needing to get their finger out was warmly received. He said how he was sick of hearing  about the Chilterns when hundreds of families were going to forced out their homes “right here”. It’s certainly galling to hear stories about the route going around golf courses but ploughing through working class estates.

There has been a distinct lack of information from HS2 but Camden Council has an info page anyway info page: here.