Fiona Bruce, MP for Congleton, raised the following question in the House of Commons this week during the HS2 debate with the Secretary of State for Transport Patrick McLoughlin MP:- (extract from Hansard follows)
Mr McLoughlin: I know that my hon. Friend is concerned, as I am, to make sure that there are sufficient connections right across the country. We have not yet reached the consultation stage on phase 2. Part of the reason why we published phase 2, although it would have been easier not to do that, was to show our commitment to serving the north, right up to Manchester, Leeds and the east midlands. So I am pretty sure that I will be hearing a lot more from my hon. Friend and others on the question of where the station should be located—Crewe or Staffordshire.
Speaking after the debate Fiona Bruce said “My views regarding HS2 remain the same as when I first spoke about this in the House in October 2011. This is a huge amount of money which unless there is a Crewe stop would in my mind be better spent supporting local transport projects at a fraction of the price such as re-opening Middlewich Railway Station, building the Congleton Link Road and tackling the speed and pressure of heavy traffic through Holmes Chapel which has troubled residents for years.
I do not believe that this business case for HS2 has been made out – certainly not in terms of the economic benefit for this constituency – and my constituents, if it goes ahead, will pay for it like everyone else across the country, at a time of great economic pressure – even though it is clear that it will actually take longer to travel from Birmingham to Manchester and then return back here on a local line than on the current West Coast Mainline. Without the assurance of a hub station stop at Crewe, which would open up this whole region to the economic benefits of HS2, I was not prepared to vote for this week’s Bill and I shall keep pressing for the Crewe stop until I obtain the Transport Minister’s assurance for this.
I am also aware that whilst the proposed track will not pass through my constituency it goes very near it and the proposals are therefore deeply concerning to very many people across Cheshire with the current compensation arrangements wholly inadequate. It is essential that their concerns are addressed by Government and for this reason also I could not support the Bill this week.”
