HS2 has affected everything, say residents near building site

As further delays and rising costs have been revealed for the HS2 rail line, those living near the construction site in Northamptonshire say it will take them a long time to recover.

Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander announced on Tuesday the high-speed line would not open until between 2036 and 2039 - up to six years later than the most recent target - and the project could now cost as much as £102.7bn.

Nigel Stevens-Astell knows all too well about the rail line's ongoing impact.

He lives close to where it is being constructed through south Northamptonshire - on the line between London and Birmingham - with diggers due to be on site for much longer than hoped.

"The traffic has increased beyond comprehension, there is so much damage done to the wildlife and the road, and it's going to take years - and I mean years - for it to recover," he says.

"I shall probably be long gone by the time it's open."

Nigel's wife Olga says "sometimes you take your life in your hands" when joining the local road.

"HS2 lorries come in convoys about two, three, four," she says.

"The surface is just a complete nightmare - it is like a slalom, you're trying to avoid potholes."

Simon Bingham, chairman of Greatworth Parish Council, tells the BBC: "We must be eight years in to having the grounds turfed up and all our trees removed, and we now face another 13 years by the sound of it.

"The countryside is completely destroyed, pretty much every tree that we would have seen east-side of our village is completely gone.

"We've got the green tunnel being built through the village, which has created mounds of 13 to 15 metres high soil, and stone and rocks. It is like looking at some visual thing on the moon, if we're honest."

Fiona Mason lives near Helmdon, and her family has lived there for nearly 28 years.

She says it is quite different now.

"It has changed from farmland to moonscape, and we all understand the construction causes that," she says.

"We are hoping that there will be a lot of tree planting and coverage both for noise, environment, animals, bats, but hoping and seeing is not always the same thing."

HS2 was originally announced in 2012, with plans to connect London with Birmingham before extending to Manchester and Leeds.

The legs to the north of England were later scrapped by previous Conservative governments amid concerns over cost.

Work began on the project almost a decade ago and services were originally due to be running this year.

Heidi Alexander told the House of Commons her party inherited a "litany of failure" over the project.

But she confirmed the government was committed to delivering the line.

"It could cost almost as much to cancel the line as it would to finish it, while delivering none of the benefits," she said.

Shadow transport minister Jerome Mayhew accepted the project had not gone to plan at the beginning.

Dickon Ross, editor of Rail Magazine, told the BBC: "It's [HS2's] main raison d'être is to ease congestion. It's a very overcrowded part of the network and HS2, although it won't be running as many trains as originally planned, it will still add capacity and it is well worth having."

The top speed of trains will be reduced from 360km/h (224mph) to 320km/h (199mph), in an effort to cut costs.

A spokesperson for HS2 Ltd says: "We recognise that this will be unwelcome news for local communities and taxpayers, and we share in their disappointment that it will take longer and cost more to bring HS2 into service.

"Resetting HS2 was the only way to regain control of the project.

"In Northamptonshire, we will continue to work hard to minimise disruption for people living near the railway."

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