Caller with home on proposed HS2 route 'absolutely delighted' it's axed
19 November 2021, 11:56 | Updated: 19 November 2021, 12:02
Caller with home on proposed HS2 route 'absolutely delighted'
This caller who's had a long-running connection with LBC delighted that "Boris [Johnson] has not betrayed us", as her renovated farmhouse has been saved by the government's scrapping of the eastern leg of HS2 to Leeds.
Nick said to Louise from Aston: "Tell everybody your story, why you were so concerned, and why your daughter wrote to the then transport secretary Chris Grayling."
"We bought a derelict property, spent what we considered to be a fortune on it, put our life and soul into it," she said.
"[We] lived in a caravan while we did that. The property is a listed building as well so we had to jump through hoops to do what we wanted to do, ask for permission for everything, which cost us extra money.
"Then in 2017, we've basically built our dream home against the odds.. we got a leaflet dropped through the letterbox saying... 'you may be concerned' [about HS2].
"We were absolutely devastated."
Girl Pleads To Chris Grayling: “Don’t Let HS2 Destroy My House!”
As we previously reported, 9-year-old Lily Nicholson, from Aston near Sheffield, decided to take action into her own hands when she heard her family home was going to be demolished to make way for the HS2 rail line.
Writing directly to the, then, Transport Secretary, Lily sent a heartfelt letter asking Chris Grayling to "use the good inside him" to save her home which had "special memories" for her.
"So now the news is in, you're saved!" Nick said, referring to the news that the eastern leg of HS2 to Leeds has been scrapped and a full high-speed east-west line linking Manchester to Leeds will not be built.
Louise replied: "Absolutely delighted. Boris has not betrayed us. I speak for 90% of the people of South Yorkshire - we did not want HS2.
"We don't want it, we don't need it, we want better cross-pennine links."
