'Absolute hell': Residents of Warwickshire village on HS2 line say they're still living a nightmare
A homeowner in Water Orton tells ITV News Central reporter Pablo Taylor that the "devastation and the disruption and the total lack of consideration by the HS2 workers" has made their village "absolute hell"
Residents of a village in Warwickshire that sits of the path of HS2's line from London to Birmingham say they are still living a nightmare years after construction work began.
Work has been ongoing in Water Orton to build two giant viaducts that will carry the high speed trains over the busy M42 and M6 Toll motorways.
HS2 says they have been designed to blend seamlessly into their surroundings.
But Lynda Davies, a local resident, says the work has turned what was a quiet, peaceful village into a building site.
"It’s been absolute hell. The devastation and the disruption and the total lack of consideration by the HS2 workers and the traffic lights and the dust and the dirt and the pollution is just unbelievable really. It really is.”
HS2 says the viaducts in Water Orton will be 20 metres in height at their highest point.
They will be held up by a series of 32 giant supporting columns and will hold 700 metres of new HS2 track over the River Tame and a network of existing transport links.
HS2 Ltd says it tries to minimise the impacts of construction wherever possible and encourages residents to keep raising their concerns.
One of those residents is Felicitas Freeman who lives with a stone's throw of the viaduct site.
She has been in constant contact with HS2 about the flooding on her road, which she claims has worsened since construction began and reduced the value of her home.
She said: “The estate agent didn’t really want to come out to Attenborough lane because he said it was hard to value something that is blighted.
"It’s a difficult situation.
"Property prices are suppressed here. Who wants to live next door to HS2?”
However, some in the village have benefited from the arrival of HS2.
Water Orton & District Tennis Club is one a number of community venues to have received a grant from HS2, allowing it to pay for much-needed improvements.
It's Chairman, Paul Messenger said: “HS2 funded our floodlights and until they did that we were a club that played six months a year and now we can play all year."
"All the other community clubs in the village were getting something and I thought well we’ll give it a go and we managed to get that and the club’s grown from there.”
Earlier this week HS2 announced it had reached a milestone in completing more than half of the tunnels required for the rail project.
Construction is due to finish in the early 2030s.