A man who sold his house HS2 It is said that he was distraught after finding out that it was converted into one Canbis factory.
Alan Wilkinson bought four-bedroom luxury house Whitmore heath leafy hill village At Staffordshire with his wife, Gilian in the late 1970s.
The couple pair a swimming pool and a new kitchen for luxurious assets – but when the proposal for proposals came out Now ex-X 2 line Under Hamlet, they carried forward with a plan to downsse and sell.
It triggers war To sell the house to HS2, a fight Gillian did not see the end, as he died of pancreatic cancer two weeks before the steps set in 2019.
The isolated assets were not required to make way for the line, but the couple settled on the £ 1.2M deal with HS2, which bought it under the “Special Circumstances” purchase scheme.
But Mr. Wilkinson was shocked when he discovered his old house, which was later rented, was being used to grow cannabis plants.
The 85 -year -old said, “My old neighbor saw the witnesses of two Jehovah coming out of my old drive and said ‘You will not find anyone there’.
“They replied ‘not’, but cannabis’. It turned out that 184 cannabis plants were growing inside. They could sniff it.”
soon after, Staffordshire Police The house was raided and found that the drugs are growing in five rooms inside. A man from Mercesis blamed for the production of a class B in July.
Sri Wilkinson said that the property was re-given roof and its swimming pool was removed before renting, now left vacant-one of hundreds of assets required for security, costing HS2 £ 1.9m in 2023/24.
“It’s terrible,” he said. “I feel terrible, truth, which has happened.
“I hear rumors that it is going to flat and rebuild.”
Wilkinson’s house was one in 35 that was sold under schemes selling HS2, as HS2 planned twin tunnels under the hill-top village.
Some are now hired, while a number sits empty, it is covered not to be suitable for the market.
Community strain In 2023, the situation was extended by the decision of the then-Tory government, which was to scrapping that section of the line, Birmingham To Manchester.
Sri Wilkinson said: “HS2 destroyed our village. It was a good community where people built it and went to live. But the plans for the line separated it, more than a dozen people died, while waiting to sell their homes.
“I can’t bear to go back, so many memories with my wife, all went away.”
Sri Wilkinson, who also worked as the chairman of the Whitmore Parish Council, was central for community dispute with HS2 as locals demanded deals to sell their homes.
With his wife’s condition deteriorating, he traveled to London in 2018 to file a petition for HS2 on the sale of homes at the High Speed Rail Bill Committee.
Asked about the impact of HS2 schemes on his family’s health, Shri Wilkinson said: “Yes, it was definitely done [have an impact]HS2 was the worst thing that could have been with Whitmore Heath. ,
It is understood that the houses purchased by HS2 in Whitmore Heath, and with the ax line stretch for manchester, live down. Transport department Ownership despite finishing the route about two years ago.
Overall, HS2 spent £ 3.79BN purchasing properties for the overall line, including £ 633M on the now-scrapped section of the route.
A spokesperson of HS2 said that the line would run in a tunnel up to 30 meters under the Whitmore Heath, and that no homeowner was forced to sell his assets for the railway.
He continued: “We recognized Shri Wilkinson’s difficult situation and he accepted our proposal to buy our house through the plan of special circumstances of HS2 in 2019, under which we covered the moving costs, paid stamp duty and legal fees.
“We fully condemn the illegal use of property acquired by the project being used as cannabis farm. It was allowed to go to open rental market, and managed by property agents, so that the taxpayer could help the taxpayer to re -cost costs.
“We have been unable to resume the property since the police closure the farm because the cost of returning it to a detective state is very great. This area is patrolled by our private security teams who work together with Stafordshire Constabulary.”
On the canbis farm searched in the former house of Sri Wilkinson, Staffordshire police said that 32 of Darren Pinnington, Gomville Road, Liverpool, in May, were accused of being worried in the production of a controlled drug of Class B in May.
He convicted the allegation in the Stoke-on-Truce Crown Court in July and is waiting for the sentence.
The HS2 section is still moving forward, from London to Handcre in Staffordshire will run with a spur for Birmingham, but delay and spilling cost means no target date has been announced yet to open.