High Speed Rail Bill Select Committee: Statement by the Chair on Locus decisions
11 January 2016
Statement on Locus decisions made on 11 January 2016 by the Chair of the Committee, Mr Robert Syms MP.
In all except three cases we have not been convinced that the AP4 petitions whose locus challenges were heard last week should proceed. As before, many appear to object largely to the Bill itself rather than the AP. Where arguably that is not the case, such as with visual impact on Great Missenden, there are other bodies such as elected authorities who can pursue remedies. In other cases, any disbenefits of the AP are so clearly outweighed by benefits that we do not believe discretion should be exercised in favour of locus.
We allow the locus of the Hampton-in-Arden HS2 Action group and John and Susan Temperley (AP4: 26 and 191) on the basis that they have a potentially legitimate concern about whether AP4 might worsen their position. However, we will only call them to appear if we believe there is inadequate information from HS2 about their actual position.
Purely on a discretionary basis, we allow the locus of AP4: 22, Susan Rogers. Her NTS case has clear merit and needs a solution soon.