There has been a mixed reaction to HS2 being scrapped in Lowton and Golborne with nearby residents who were campaigning against the High Speed Rail being constructed in their backyard. In contrast, Wigan Council believes this is a big disappointment for the local economy and could mean the borough gets left behind.
The Lowton West Residents campaign group have been against HS2 since its inception and Linda has not missed a consultation meeting since 2013 - putting countless hours in to oppose this proposal. She and many others in Lowton can now breathe a sigh of relief, she said.
“It is a big relief,” Linda explained.
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“I can still recall the first meeting back in November 2013 when we first found out about the plans. It has been a long slog since then.
“I think that it is a wise decision personally. It would have been a stain on the area.
“To say I have put hundreds of hours into this campaign would be an understatement.
“The sense of relief in Lowton will be immense. We are really pleased with the result.”
Plans to abandon the £3bn HS2 'Golborne Link', which would have connected the Crewe to Manchester line to the west coast mainline, were announced today. Transport minister Andrew Stephenson confirmed the 13-mile stretch would be removed from the High-Speed Rail (Crewe – Manchester) Bill after second reading.
Construction was due to start in the early 2030s and it was expected to open in the late 2030s or early 2040s as part of the second stage of HS2 services to Scotland. The track would have left the HS2 route between Crewe to Manchester, cut through Trafford before joining the West Coast Main Line south of Wigan.
Ms Graham said that she wished that Ed Thwaite, the former Lowton East Neighbourhood Development Forum (LENDF), was alive to see this result. Mr Thwaite, who died in September 2021, and LENDF are more campaigners in the Lowton/Golborne area that worked with Ms Graham's group to oppose HS2.
The chair of Lowton West Residents’ believes that he would have been delighted with this result after working side by side for years on this issue. She said this “would have been a huge thing for him”.
However, this result is not seen as a positive by a Wigan Central councillor for Labour who believes this will be bad for the future economy of the borough. Coun Lawrence Hunt thinks this is another broken promise from the Government who said they wanted to invest in the north.
“This will be a disaster for the borough in terms of the economy,” Coun Hunt said. “It is just another broken promise from the Government.
“This will impact on the jobs that would come through building the railway and just as importantly the apprenticeships that were promised through this as well. That is all not going to happen now.
“We were relying on this to boost our economy. They [the Government] promise the Earth and deliver nothing, it is an act of vandalism.”
The Leader of Wigan Council, Councillor David Molyneux, said: “We are extremely disappointed to have received confirmation that the Golborne Link will be removed from the HS2 Bill. Our stance and support of HS2 and the opportunities it would bring to our borough, positioning Wigan as a significant transport hub for the region and securing much wider benefits for our local economy, has been consistent from day one.
“This decision to move away from the original plans will have a significant impact on our communities and on the wider region, undermining the Levelling Up commitments made by government. We are told that alternatives are being considered that will deliver similar benefits to the Golborne link. We will urgently be seeking further details to ensure there are positive outcomes for Wigan Borough and Greater Manchester.
“As we have stated previously, we are making significant efforts to invest in our local economy but we cannot do this alone. We urge government to honour its Levelling Up commitments to make sure that half of the country is not left behind.”
Minister of State for Transport, Andrew Stephenson MP, who is responsible for the rollout of Government policy on both HS2 and Northern Powerhouse Rail, has confirmed that the removal of the Golborne Link from the High-Speed Rail Bill will mean that alternatives will be looked at again, to deliver for the taxpayer within the £96 billion allocated for the Integrated Rail Plan. Leigh’s Conservative MP James Grundy welcomed the news.
“I am very pleased to announce that the Government has decided to scrap the Golborne Spur of HS2, after a decade-long campaign by local residents, businesses, and your local Conservative representatives,” he said. “This project affected thousands of families in Lowton and Golborne, including my own, and for the last decade caused huge suffering and uncertainty to the families and businesses affected as well as massive damage to the local area.
“I'd like to thank all the thousands of local residents in Lowton, Golborne and beyond, who supported the campaign to scrap the spur over the last decade. I always said we needed Golborne Station, not the Golborne Spur of HS2, and I'm pleased to have been able to deliver on both those promises.
“This will come as a huge relief to many businesses, resident groups and households across the communities that would have been devastated by the Golborne Spur.”
