HS2 campaigners could push for judicial review

Legal experts have been asked to draw up plans to push for a judicial review against the controversial HS2 scheme.

Campaigners have long said that the decision-making process - for which the public consultation process ends on March 9 - has been flawed.

The review could be launched within months and is being financed by several groups working together.

Mexborough councillor Sean Gibbons, a long-term critic of the HS2 line, is one of the leaders of the judicial review project.

He said it had been launched because of “frustration” with the lack of information supplied by HS2 to councillors and the public.

Even at last Friday’s HS2 information event in Mexborough, Cllr Gibbons said, officials were unable tell residents of the town’s Shimmer estate if their individual homes would be demolished.

Cllr Gibbons said the judicial review would be based on the grounds of “irrational decision making” and alleged “incompetence” by HS2 Ltd.

He said he would contribute his own council member’s allowance for a month towards funding the review, alongside donations from other protesters.

Cllr Gibbons added: “In terms of the whole process, we are going to be taking on the Government.”