Good news!

I have won my court case against HS2.

The Decision Notice has been released, for the Freedom of Information case EA 2020/0088 Sarah Green against HS2 Ltd, heard in the first tier general regulatory chamber on 4 March 2021.

The unanimous decision of the judges is that HS2 Ltd was not entitled to withhold the requested information. In January 2019 HS2 Ltd refused to provide the water risk assessments for the Load Test Piling at Harvil Road which is the nearest location of the proposed Colne Valley Viaduct to the contaminated land at Newyears Green and an area of underground pollution. HS2 had claimed that they needed ‘safe space’ to undertake further investigations and discussions with third parties. That any proposals would be submitted to the Environment Agency for approval and that if unfinished information was given to the public this could be misleading and involve greater public expenditure to correct false impressions.

The judges rejected these reasons saying that this approach almost entirely negates the possibility of the public having any input on the decision-making process in this kind of case, which goes against a large part of the reason for allowing public access to environmental information.

The other reason claimed by HS2 for not releasing the information was public safety. This too was rejected by the judges. The Decision Notice states that by 21 May 2021 HS2 Ltd must provide ‘unredacted’ versions of 3 water risk assessments for their works taking place in the Drinking Water protected Areas of the Colne Valley in North West London.

I look forward to the full release of the documents; Options for mitigation of effects of piling on groundwater, Groundwater Assessment for Construction Tasks – Piling at the Colne Valley Viaduct and Groundwater Assessment for Construction Tasks – Tunnel and Cross passage.

This decision gives further weight to London Borough of Hillingdon to delay their consent for the viaduct and the river diversions, until LBH has access to the information and considered the implications for local water supplies.