The Court of Appeal has found in the government’s favour by agreeing with the High Court’s previous judgment that a Strategic Environmental Assessment was not required before making safeguarding directions to protect the planned route for Phase One of HS2.
Transport secretary Patrick McLoughlin said: “The courts have once again rejected a legal challenge against HS2 as they have done on repeated occasions. The government has now won 20 out of 21 challenges to the project. The House of Commons has approved the hybrid Bill in a vote of 452 to 41. I invite interested groups to work with us to make HS2 the very best it can be, and not waste more public money on costly and fruitless court cases.
“HS2 will deliver jobs, skills and free up space on our congested network for more trains and more passengers, that is why we are continuing to press ahead with the Parliamentary process which will ensure spades in the ground by 2017.”