Jayne Dowle: Region's concern over HS2 must be listened to

In reality, the proposed high-speed HS2 link has turned into a joke round here. Not a funny joke though. Just an ultra-expensive – current estimates run at £55.7bn – and deeply disruptive joke. Mention “HS2” to anyone selling a house on either one of the “proposed” routes, for example, and they raise their eyes to heaven and shake their head.

I know one woman in Wombwell, South Yorkshire, who needed to sell for divorce reasons. She couldn’t offload her house for three years because the original line was to be just metres from her garden, and ended up having to rent it out.

I know another who finally found the property of her dreams in Crofton, West Yorkshire, close to her family and good schools for her children. Then, days from exchange of contracts, the new route – which goes close by – was announced and her partner refused to sign on the dotted line. Two more families, buyer and seller, whose entire life direction has been derailed.

I am sure that Theresa May already has enough to think about on this matter. A scathing new Parliamentary report has cast doubt on both the progress and economic viability of the HS2 scheme. However, as she turns her attention to setting out a clear way forward, I suggest she pays a little attention to the people who HS2 might affect. And by this I mean a wider demographic than the business types and expense-account holders who are the only ones likely to be able to afford the fares.

The first phase, from London to Birmingham, is already a year behind schedule, and may now not be completed until 2027. Most crucially for us in Yorkshire, the estimates to link the Midlands to Leeds and Manchester exceed the budget by £7bn, and the plans to link HS2 with the planned high-speed rail route from Leeds to Manchester are not standing up to scrutiny. The idea that our major towns and cities were all going to be connected to improve commutability is looking like a far and distant dream.

On top of this, it looks as if local councils are going to need a lot more money than anyone ever anticipated to regenerate the land around the current proposed route.

Ha, the proposed route. Well, imagine what it feels to live in South or West Yorkshire. One minute you might be expecting a high-speed train to be whizzing past the bottom of your garden in a matter of years. The next you’re told that the route has been changed and now it will be whizzing past someone else’s.

The concerns of the actual people this might affect have frankly, been entirely and completely ignored by those in charge of the project. The term “riding roughshod” does not even begin to describe it.

I remember when the project was announced, a reporter interviewed a chap in Hoyland, South Yorkshire. The first version of the route was about to slice straight through his farm shop, a family business he had built up with dedication and diligence. This proud, plain-speaking man broke down in tears; his whole life was about to be sacrificed on the altar of “progress”.

I wonder how big his sigh of relief was when it was announced that the route was now to be changed as the proposed station at Meadowhall shopping mall, a few miles down the M1, was not to be built after all. Imagine though the stress and worry for this man in the intervening years. And think on that he is just one of many thousands of individuals whose futures have been left hanging entirely in the balance.

We can’t stand in the way of modernisation. However, the very least Yorkshire people should expect from the Government is both a clear way forward, and for their concerns to be listened to.

To this end, I ask the Prime Minister to make the installation of a new HS2 chief executive a priority – the previous incumbent, Simon Kirby, left his £750,000-a-year role to join Rolls-Royce. This massive infrastructure project requires strong, committed and consistent leadership. The last thing we need is a place-man who has never been north of Watford.

The very point of this rail link is that it links two points on a compass. It will not work if only the concerns of those in London are heard and taken into account. All that would do is to further widen the chasm between North and South, and leave Mrs May with a legacy which will do nothing to further her determination to help more than the “privileged few”.

HS2 has the potential to change lives in Yorkshire for the better. It has also runs the risk of ruining them for ever. Those in charge of moving it forward must never forget this.