Fears that proposals for new HS2 route could damage homes
People living in Mexborough have been telling us how new proposals for the HS2 route to got through Sheffield city centre could destroy their homes.
The route phase 2 of HS2 will take through South Yorkshire has proved one of the most controversial aspects of whole project and the debate over its impact has encapsulated many of the broader issues involved. The original plan to build a brand new station to serve Sheffield and its region next to the M1 at the Meadowhall shopping centre caused outrage in the city. The city council and a range of business organisations argued it was madness to locate the new hub three miles to the east of the centre of one of the UK's biggest cities, especially as it was part of an infrastructure project partly designed to inject vitality into northern conurbations. A well organised local campaign was mounted to bring the route into the centre of Sheffield.
Many advocated using the site of the abandoned Victoria Station. The station, which was closed in 1970, looked down from the city from a viaduct about a half-a-mile from the current mainline station. But, when a change of plan was announced earlier this year involving a proposal to build a spur into Sheffield city centre using existing routes and scrap the Meadowhall station, the celebrations in Sheffield Town Hall were matched by the dismay from many groups in the rest of South Yorkshire. Many businesses and politicians in Rotherham and Doncaster said the Meadowhall option, with its direct link to the M1 and its central location, would have been a better hub for the whole of the region. Even more contentious was HS2 Ltd's ancillary proposal to re-route the project further east - away from the M1 corridor - which meant creating a whole new corridor of controversy through the heart of South Yorkshire. The decision plunged a new group of communities into uncertainty. The most high profile of these was the residents of the brand new Shimmer housing estate on the Doncaster side of the town of Mexborough. The developers of the newly completed site, Strata, said they were "shocked'' by the news and their newly-moved-in customers could not believe what they were being told. A number of properties on the Shimmer estate, an attractive housing development of two and three-storey town houses situated on the banks of a canal, display anti-HS2 posters on their windows. Building work continues in one section of the site, while residents said some houses had been abandoned half-built. Leigh Smith moved on to the Shimmer estate in June and said she found out about the HS2 plans just three weeks later.
She told Hallam: "We thought it was a joke. We used absolutely every bit of money we could get to buy this, it's our first home. "I'm just devastated. We're all distraught. I've never seen my husband like it." Mrs Smith broke down in tears as she described how the plans have upset her autistic adult son. She said: "It isn't just going to be a case of just moving. It's just going to be absolutely horrific. It was horrific to move here." Mrs Smith said she believed HS2 had visited the estate before she bought her house and said she was angry at the lack of information given to residents. "Why continue selling them if they knew what was happening? To me we've been lied to and sold something that was never going to be our home," she said. She said HS2 planners did not know the estate was there initially as the development was so new it did not appear on maps. She said: "My neighbour rang HS2 and our house isn't even recognised on the postcode yet, they didn't even know it was there. "When they Googled it, this wasn't here, it was just a piece of empty land."