In my most recent call with HS2 Minister, Andrew Stephenson, I was very pleased to get assurances on the most recent developments with the project locally. 

The first of these is the revised working hours which HS2 have applied for. Both the Minister and the team at HS2 have assured me that this is there more as a safety net than anything else. Some of the works they will be doing, with the viaduct in particular, cannot be stopped once they have started. They have also committed that the most noisy works will only be done during core working hours. The Minister is going to be writing to me to outline this in greater detail and explain some of the assurance measures they have in place. 

The second matter we covered was the long term concerns many residents have over the water quality in the Colne Valley aquifer. I do understand that there are some legal/technical difficulties about data being released and as to who the data belongs to. The water quality data was shared with LBH and I know they have welcomed this and did not have any concerns. The Minister went to great lengths to run through the checks and assurances they have had to go through in order to undertake this work and is going to put this in writing for me to share with constituents. 

In a separate discussion I had with HS2, they said that they will do their best to get this sorted because they indeed have nothing to hide and can see the ridiculousness of this situation. In the meantime they will try and review the messaging to try and settle concerns.