Agenda item

Steve Hollingworth, Advisor to the Trust, presented the report and provided a summary of the key points. HS2 had indicated that it intended to exercise its power under section 4 of  the High-Speed Rail (London-West Midlands) Act 2017 ( the HS2 Act)  to compulsorily purchase parts of Wormwood Scrubs. This intention had been most recently set out in a public meeting on 26^th July 2021. HS2 had stated that the need for the compulsory purchase order was to enable HS2 to complete the construction works and grant rights to utilities providers to carry out works.

The HS2 Act gave HS2 powers to carry out the works to divert the Stamford Brook sewer and other utilities on Wormwood Scrubs. These statutory powers would  expire in February 2022. To avoid the risks to its programme, HS2 intend to exercise their powers under the HS2 Act to compulsorily purchase two areas of the Scrubs.

The plots that HS2 proposed to compulsorily purchase were shown in the plan included at Appendix B and C.

Referring to the UTX works, Miriam Shea (Co-opted Member) raised concerns on why HS2 had requested to move 6 of the utilities back under the road. She asked if there were any legal concerns with HS2 retaining the ownership of the sub soil. In response Adesuwa Omoregie, provided a summary of the rights which gave the Secretary of State rights to acquire certain parts of the Scrubs to undertake works. The area of land known as Plot 75 which included the sub soil was within the limits that could be acquired by HS2 as permitted under the HS2 Act. The Act only permitted the acquisition of land for the purposes set out within the Act.  If the land was acquired and was then not used for the permitted purposes, then action could potentially be taken.  

Stephen Waley-Cohen (Co-opted Member) queried if the Trust received a written guarantee  from HS2 that the land would be returned) upon completion of works. In response Adesuwa Omoregie explained that the Trust representatives had raised this concern with HS2, and they had advised that they would provide legally binding assurance that the land would be returned as soon as the works had been finished. This was an ongoing matter and the Trust representatives were waiting for HS2 to provide confirmation so that this could be assessed. Further advice would be provided to the Trust in due course.

Action: Trust Manager

The Chair noted that a list of questions had been sent to the Trust from various parties and the answers were provided in Appendix A of the report. Members discussed Appendix A in detail and full details and answers can be viewed here: https://youtu.be/K3kvIerIqK0

Members requested that the following actions be carried out:

-        Find out whether HS2 had consulted he Ministry of Defence regarding HS2’s intention to serve notice of the compulsory purchase order.

-        Further discussions to be held with HS2 to ascertain when the land would be returned to the Trust.

-        Further clarification be provided from HS2 that the land would be transferred back to the Trust at no cost

-        Further particular clarification to be provided on the purposes for which the land would be used.

Action Trust Manager

RESOLVED:

That the Committee noted the report