For the second time in a week people have been given more time to respond to a consultation on the environmental impact of HS2.
Following a ruling of a House of Lords committee, the deadline for responses was yesterday extended to 11.59pm on February 27.
The original deadline was tomorrow (January 24), with people at first given just 56 days to sift through more than 50,000 pages of information on the £50 billion line, which would cut through Aylesbury Vale.
The extension came a week after the deadline was extended until February 10 following a ruling by a House of Commons committee.
It was also announced on the same day that anti-HS2 campaigners had their appeals against the legality of the scheme dismissed by the Supreme Court.
The latest delays means the first vote on the HS2 hybrid bill, essentially the planning application for the line, is unlikely to happen before Easter.
An HS2 Ltd spokesman said it was ‘happy to comply’ with the rulings of both committees.
But campaigners hit out at the government-backed company behind the line, saying they tried to bury the news under the cloud of the Supreme Court judgement.
Stop HS2 campaign manager Joe Rukin said: “Instead of saying they would comply with the ruling from the Lords right away, HS2 Ltd decided to wait until the Supreme Court verdict to try and bury this news.”
The two Parliamentary rulings to extend the deadline come after nearly 900 pages were left out of copies of the environmental statement.
