A number of the major district and county councils along the route of the proposed High-Speed Two (HS2) rail line are being investigated by the Audit Commission.
There are reports this morning that a number of the major district and county councils along the route of the proposed High-Speed Two (HS2) rail line are being investigated by the Audit Commission for the misuse of public money, described by Tory MP for Weaver Vale, Graham Evans, as a “disgraceful misuse of public money”.
According to an article in the Bucks Herald in August, more than £250,000 of taxpayers’ money has been spent by councils along the route on a fund to fight HS2.
The councils, including Buckinghamshire County Council and Aylesbury Vale District Council, are reported to all belong to 51m – a group of 15 Tory run councils who are against the project.
This sum, however, may be substantially lower than the actual figures that have been spent, today’s Liverpool Daily Echo reporting that £1 million may have been spent. It has also been suggested that considerably more councils are currently being investigated by the Audit Commission.
If this is true, this could leave these councils in a heap of trouble. Not only are they spending this money in a time of major council cutbacks, but they are spending the money in direct opposition to a project that has full support at the top levels of government.
Tory-run councils in the Home Counties are funnelling money to directly oppose a project that was in the Conservative Party manifesto (p. 23, pdf), and has had continued support from transport secretary Philip Hammond, chancellor George Osborne and the prime minister himself, David Cameron telling Parliament in June:
“I believe that if we are really serious about rebalancing our economy and ensuring that we get growth across the country, and not just in the south-east, the time for high-speed rail has come. That is why it has my strong support.”
There has already been some dissent in the ranks of the Conservative party on this matter, with backbencher Andrea Leadsom (Con, South Northamptonshire) and Welsh secretary Cheryl Gillan (Con, Chesham & Amersham) – whose constituencies lie along the proposed route – leading the charge.
After the uprising from the Home Counties about the proposed changes to planning legislation, Tory-run councils misbehaving over another proposed piece of legislation will not be a further irritant to the government.
32 Responses to “Audit Commission to investigate anti-HS2 Tory councils”
Richard
How much money has the proHS2 campaign had from the government, then? The FT in June said it only raised “£120,000 from supporters, including rail companies and construction groups.”
Jo Dooher
RT @leftfootfwd: Audit Commission to investigate anti-HS2 Tory councils: http://t.co/v4O2dpq reports @ShamikDas #Yes2HS2 @Biz4HS2
Mr. Sensible
I always thought that Cameron was spoiling for a fight with his party on this…
Stuart
Yes, I very much agree with this newspaper story. It is the role of the local authorities to represent the views of all their community and to spend money locally on local services. It is only a small minority that is against HS2 in my county (Bucks). As pointed out in the local press only about 40,000 people in total responded to the HS2 consultation. If this largely represents the total number of those strongly against HS2 that is hardly a major number of people in the UK let along a county or district.
Ed's Talking Balls
‘a project that has full support at the top levels of government.’
But very little support, and extremely strong opposition, at grass roots level. Local people who pay their council tax would probably fail to see the scandal in local government using their money to campaign against such an obvious white elephant.
And as PNDavies rightly points out, these sums are almost certainly going to trivial when compared with how much public money has gone to pro-HS2. Wasting billions of pounds in this climate is scandalous. How many hospitals, schools, policemen, houses, aircraft carriers, etc could we have if this money were spent sensibly instead of pumped towards a vanity project?