WHO do Cheshire East Council think they are kidding?

All the local papers are carrying stories about plans for a HS2 station near Crewe, with wonderful sketches and diagrams of Light Rail connections linking it though the town centre to Coppenhall and Bentley Motors.

Do the Conservatives think that, if they build a station on the HS2 line, trains will automatically stop there?

They are called high speed for a reason, because they won’t be stopping anywhere between Birmingham and Manchester Airport.

Crewe’s Labour town council also thinks that HS2 will benefit the town.

Hard to see how, except maybe for trainspotters, who will be able to spend some quality time at Basford watching the trains hurtling into the tunnel under Crewe.

HS2 is an enormous white elephant, currently expected to cost us £50 billion.

That’s £50 billion that could be going towards real improvements to the transport system, such as the electrification of the Crewe-Chester line, opening the Middlewich link, tram-trains from Macclesfield to Manchester and improved Sunday services all round.

Manchester to London train journeys being diverted onto HS2 could actually mean fewer direct services from Crewe, Macclesfield and Wilmslow.

Talk of benefits to the regional economy is unfounded; HS2 is intended purely as a passenger service and would not carry an ounce of freight.

The experience of comparable countries such as Spain and France shows that, if anything, high speed rail systems lead to lower investment in the regions; a ‘flight of capital to the Capital’.

Cheshire East Conservatives are in denial, unable or unwilling to admit to themselves that their own Government has betrayed them, along with the rest of us, over HS2.

Will they not stand up for the borough, as they have over fracking, instead of colluding with the Government’s propaganda about this expensive vanity project?

JOHN KNIGHT Cheshire East Green Party Fountain Street Macclesfield