protest against HS2 - group of people walking across a field

Letter: ‘HS2 and why we should not silently accept this state sponsored ecocide’

OnTheWight always welcomes a Letter to the Editor to share with our readers – unsurprisingly they don’t always reflect the views of this publication. If you have something you’d like to share, get in touch and of course, your considered comments are welcome below.

This from David Moorse, Shanklin. Ed


HS2 some facts and figures! Costs – benefits!

The cost….

  • 693 local wildlife sites
  • 108 Ancient Woodlands
  • 33 legally protected SSSIs
  • 18 Wildlife Trust Nature Reserves
  • Five Internationally protected Wildlife sites
  • Two RAMSAR sites – wetlands of international importance
  • Four taxpayer-funded Nature improvement sites (that was money well spent!?)
  • 22 Living landscapes – (wildlife corridors essential to the survival of locally endangered species)

Total area destroyed (about 50 square kilometers) = 1/8th of the entire areas of the Isle of Wight – it is equal to the total area of every Woodland and every Forest on the whole Isle of Wight.

£250k for every one metre of track
What is it costing to destroy such a vast quantity of our Natural Heritage? £250,000 for every one metre of track! Now think of walking from London to Birmingham… five paces cost a million pounds!

On the up side though … Look at the benefits:

  • A few people will take 20 mins less to get from London to somewhere on the outskirts of Birmingham.
  • A few others will get much richer, pocketing huge chunks of the £Billions of Taxpayers money.

Have your say
Just because it’s not in our back yard, doesn’t mean that we should sit back and silently accept this state sponsored ecocide!

Just one final question….. why is this a good idea?

Image: djim under CC BY 2.0