Campaigners won't budge as they set up camp in proposed HS2 pathway

This week, major decisions about the future of HS2 and what impact it will have on it's route through the Thames Valley are being made.

As the cost of the project has increased, local activists are calling for it to be scrapped with a permanent camp now being set up by campaigners.

If it goes ahead as planned, the high speed rail link will cut through the Buckinghamshire countryside, close to Wendover and Aylesbury. Now, the Wendover Active Resistance Camp has been set up in woodland just off the A413.

  • Watch this report by our Transport Correspondent Mike Pearse:

Day and night, campaigners are on standby to prevent the bulldozers. They say this wood is typical of many sites that will be destroyed if the project is built.

The site is where they plan a massive viaduct to carry the trains overhead between London and Birmingham.

The viaduct here would connect London to Birmingham
Campaigners have set up camp in the wood in Buckinghamshire Credit: ITV Meridian

  • Ros Monaghan, Campaigner:

They're building structures to live in and taking to the trees to make it more difficult to remove them. This is similar to other camps along the route, but the first in our region.

Campaigners are making structures to live in, using trees Credit: ITV Meridian

In Wendover, it's hard to find people who back the scheme- from councils, to MPs, to local. Many are opposed and are backing the protest.

  • Ann Hayward, resident:

Meanwhile, a government review into HS2 continues.