You might expect the farmer whose farm was going to be split in two by the second leg of HS2 to be jumping with joy at the news of its cancellation.
But Edward Cavenagh-Mainwaring’s land was bought through compulsory purchase by HS2 Ltd five days before Rishi Sunak’s announcement to scrap phase 2 of the high-speed line. He has lost a quarter of his Staffordshire dairy farm and fears he will never be able to buy it back.
“Am I jumping up and down? No I’m not,” said Cavenagh-Mainwaring. “I’ve gone through bereavement. I worked the land for the last time the day before they took it. I shed tears for it.
“I’ve lived in the shadow of HS2 for nearly 10 years. My time and mental health has been squandered on this project. I feel sorry for all the people who have suffered – selling their houses, watching woods being felled.”
Resigned to the arrival of bulldozers, and unable to witness the land his family had farmed for food and wildlife for decades trashed, Cavenagh-Mainwaring had made plans to move away, selling his dairy herd and renting out the remainder of his divided farm.
When plans were first revealed for the second leg from the West Midlands to Crewe and on to Manchester, Cavenagh-Mainwaring said he found HS2 “constructive”. They listened to his concerns and adjusted the height of a farm access tunnel under the planned embankment so it would fit farm machinery, for instance. “In the last two years, they’ve been a different animal … [They say] ‘This is what we’re doing.’”
Like many other people and landowners who have witnessed the reality of the HS2 juggernaut on the ground, he has been astonished by the apparent incompetence and waste of taxpayers’ money.
When protesters took up residence in a nearby wood – which was not actually in the line of HS2 – HS2 sent in security. “It wasn’t just 10 or 20, but 200 security who looked like paramilitaries. They fenced in the protesters, and ambulances and climbing crews and diggers sat there waiting outside for about 30 days.”
HS2 also put security with dogs in Whitmore Wood, an ancient woodland that he owns, “and completely failed to ask us if this was OK,” he said.
Although construction work had not begun on the 2a section from the West Midlands to Crewe, HS2 had been undertaking advanced environmental mitigation works.
According to Cavenagh-Mainwaring, they took one of his best wildflower meadows, told him it was of low environmental value and sprayed swaths of it with weedkiller so they could build two ponds for great-crested newts. The meadow was on sandstone, one of the drier areas of the farm, and they had to bring in articulated lorry-loads of water on to the site to fill the ponds.
“I could have showed them where to put newt ponds – where there is low-lying land with water – but they never asked,” he said. “I find it extraordinary that I don’t think I’ve ever been asked for advice by them when I’ve spent my life farming the land here.
“I can’t describe the amount of wasted money that locals have to watch,” he said. “The contractors aren’t interested in a simple solution – it’s not a big earner. It’s about an engineering solution to a problem that doesn’t exist.
“Fiscal control is out of control somewhere higher up – there’s always smart vans and a plethora of ecological specialists. HS2 have driven the railway line through the Treasury vaults and helped themselves to public money.”
An HS2 spokesperson said: “We understand that people did not choose to live in the path of a high speed railway, and recognise that every property is unique. At all times we endeavour to be understanding and to provide appropriate support and guidance.”
Cavenagh-Mainwaring received the first tranche of payment from HS2 last Friday for 105 hectares (260 acres), which it bought for the line and construction works. He is fighting for more, arguing that HS2 has valued the land too low and he would not be able to buy comparable acres in the area with the money.
If HS2 decides to sell the land again, he will be given first option to buy it back but that will be a struggle because he has to pay capital gains tax on the money he has received.
Cavenagh-Mainwaring also fears he will never be given that opportunity. “If we have this conversation in 10 years’ time, I think they will still own the land. This is one government shelving it – another may decide to build it again. I will be amazed if we get offered our land back. My legacy was soil and wildlife. HS2 own it now.”
