HS2 parliament debate secured
16th September 2011
When it was announced a couple of weeks ago that the campaign against HS2 had succeeded in obtaining its goal of over 100,000 signatures to secure a debate about the controversial project in the main chamber, there was great excitement amongst campaigners.
Yet soon after the petition was submitted to parliament, it was announced that the petition could not be considered because many of the signatures had been obtained on paper, and that the online signatures would need to be submitted via the government’s own recently updated e-petitions webpage. Stop HS2, who started and submitted the petition, were told to start all over again using the new system.
Whilst the news was met with much anger and frustration, fortunately it was announced just this week that a full main chamber parliamentary debate had been secured through the lobbying of MPs, lead by Warks MP Dan Byles, for Thursday 13th October 2011.
This is another milestone for the against HS2 campaign, and campaigners should congratulate themselves for all the hardwork that has gone into securing this debate, which has taken a lot of blood sweat and tears since this debacle began back in March 2010.
This month sees the last of the submissions of interested parties to the Transport Select Committee, who will announce the findings of their inquiry in due course.
