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FEighteen years ago, a group of experts – engineers, property experts and environmentalists – rolled in A Warwickshire village will introduce plans for a new high-speed line from London to Manchester and Leeds Promise of regional economic growth and jobs.
“Once in a Lifetime” HS2 project will see Trains run at speeds of up to 250 miles per hour, connecting the capital with cities in northern England and finally breaking down the historic North-South divide.
But instead, residents of Water Orton, where there is an extension of the line to Birmingham turn around the southern edge of the villageClaim that their once peaceful community is suffering only from dust, noise and traffic from construction.
Now, villagers say they are facing another problem; The pungent smell emanating from the opening of a 3.5 mile long twin-bore tunnel through Birmingham. It is said to be so strong that some people in the community of 3,500 decide to live inside it.
“It stinks to high heaven,” says Feli Freeman, a retired economist who lives in a four-bedroom house built in the 1930s on Attleboro Lane. HS2 line,
She added: “It’s an unpleasant smell, it’s nauseating, it’s limiting in terms of going out for walks. I don’t want to take my dog for walks.”
The 66-year-old woman claims that the construction of the line has disrupted her life with increased noise, traffic and vibrations at night.
Two years ago, she was offered £3,500 by HS2 for damage caused to her roof, but when it came with a non-disclosure agreement, also known as a “gagging order”, she refused it. HS2 said the agreement was added in error, and the proposal still stands without it.
almost everyone Independent People who were spoken to said they noticed an odor, described as “fishy” and “like rotten eggs.”
the smell follows screaming Rachel Taylor, MP for North Warwickshire and Bedfordshire, has raised concerns about mismanagement and overspending at the troubled project to senior directors of the Environment Agency.
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Agency officials have assessed the smell, but said the investigation was being led by North Warwickshire Borough Council, which reported Independent The smell came from a mixture of material and slaked lime pellets extracted in a tunnel called Bromford Tunnel, as part of the “stabilisation process”.
“Foul odor from the store continues to persist following an increase in complaints during September and October,” the council advised. [contractor] Balfour Beatty Vinci said existing odour-control measures are inadequate,” said a council spokesperson, who added that HS2 is considering further ways to tackle the issue.
HS2 said the smell was not dangerous, and the lime stabilization process was a common technique to allow re-use of material elsewhere on the project, thereby reducing costs and avoiding extra lorries on the roads.
However, a spokesperson said work was being done to reduce the smell, including adding a layer of soil over the material. He said: “Excavation of the Bromford tunnels was completed last month and we are now considering options that may help to reduce or eliminate odors from the material stockpile.”
Ms Taylor wants more urgency on the issue, as she has been told the problem will be fixed by March next year. “Having recently experienced it myself, I know how unpleasant it is,” he said. “I have made it clear to HS2 that residents should not be expected to suffer through this.”
The village, originally called Overton, lies just outside Birmingham’s urban sprawl and at the northern edge of the triangular spur of the HS2 line, known as Delta Junction.
The spur will take trains from Birmingham’s Curzon Street station to Handsacre in Staffordshire, where they will connect to the West Coast Main Line to Manchester after the northern phase of the high speed line was scrapped two years ago.
Despite initial public uncertainty northern leg cancellationThis is followed by Transportation Minister Heidi Alexander criticism of The project began this year, with work progressing on completing the line to Birmingham.
In Water Orton, dozens of construction workers are at work on the outskirts of the village, working at the junction where huge concrete pillars up to 20 meters high have been erected for viaducts to carry the high speed line.
Outside the new home of the Old Saltillion Rugby Club, which was relocated and paid for by HS2, there is a large pile of soil from the works, known by locals as Ayres Rock after the Australian attraction. Inside the club, about 100 people, mostly pensioners, attend a weekly “warm hub” where there is coffee, cake and exercise.
“There’s a smell of carrion in there,” says Steve Wehlem, a 74-year-old retired electronics engineer. “It’s like someone dug up the church graveyard, everybody’s suffering from it. It’s just another thing the village has to deal with.”
Carol Hatch, 79, a retired teaching assistant, says: “You open the back door and when you smell it you think ‘Not again’, it smells of fish. I’ve got the windows down, and you wouldn’t want to be sitting outside with that.”
The smell is the latest in a list of issues for residents. They complain about potholes, which they say is caused by construction traffic, layers of dust on their homes and cars, and loss of green space.
Graham Jones, 85, says, “Before HS2 it was a proper, pretty village. Now, we’re surrounded by construction. Our trees and green spaces are gone, our roads are full of potholes and now there’s this smell.”
He adds: “This has made my wife sad, she wanted to go, but I can’t go, this is my village, this is part of my life, even if it gets ruined, I can’t leave it.”
But some families have left.
This month, a proposal was announced to reduce admissions to the village’s primary school, which was moved to a new site a short distance from its 141-year-old home for work on the HS2 line.
A Warwickshire County Council report Advocating change, he said, “Work [HS2] “This has had a significant impact on the village and the school has seen many families migrate.”
Parent Kim Turrell, 41, who has two children at the school, says: “I know friends of my children whose parents have decided to move away because of HS2, it’s really sad but not surprising given the disruption.”
However, Carl Smith, a 66-year-old retired IT worker who has lived in the village for 37 years, said the community is still desirable to live in. “It’s an affluent area and people want to get away from it,” he says.
An HS2 spokesperson said it was “working hard” to minimize traffic disruption during construction of the railway. He added: “We have reached agreements with local authorities to provide funding for road repairs and a series of access roads have been purpose-built to take construction traffic from nearby motorways directly to our work sites while avoiding local roads.”
A Warwickshire County Council spokesperson said: “The governor and staff [at Water Orton Primary School] Are committed to providing the best possible learning and development opportunities for the people in their care during and after this process. Any proposal to adjust student intake numbers will be subject to a full consultation process to gather local views and explore all options.
At the village garden center coffee shop, where a cooked breakfast costs £8 and a coffee costs £3, independent councilor Steven Stuart says community spirit has been hit by ongoing issues with the construction of the HS2 line.
He wants the company to put more money into youth projects in the village, and is unhappy with the original plan for an extension of the tunnel to reach Water Orton. permission was given Without a new planning application.
HS2 is provided funding The village has access to sporting facilities including tennis, football and cricket clubs.
“Water Orton village no longer exists as it used to,” he says. “It would be great if HS2 could accept this, and then help us be stronger going forward – but only time will tell.”