Residents in the Meriden ward are leading the charge in lodging complaints about HS2, according to new data. Solihull Council greenlit the HS2 Interchange Station in 2020, which is set to serve Solihull, Birmingham Airport and the NEC.
However, the Solihull area has been significantly disrupted by HS2 works over recent years, including tunnel construction, interchanges, land clearances and road closures. The latest meeting of the HS2 Implementation Advisory Group at Solihull Council revealed a slew of recent public complaints about the ongoing work.
These complaints, lodged between July and September this year, spanned several areas including Bickenhill, Castle Bromwich, Coleshill North and South, Kingshurst and Fordbridge, Lyndon, and Meriden. Victoria Roberts, HS2's senior engagement and interface manager, informed the meeting: "Between July and September we have had 21 formal complaints. Considering the scale of the work that has been happening in some of the areas this is a fair reflection of the (HS2) team responding."
She added: "Around 70 per cent of complaints are from Meriden ward - the ward as a whole rather than Meriden village. The majority of complaints are noise and vibration and traffic and transport issues."
She confirmed that all but one complaint had been actioned, with the remaining issue relating to complaints handling still being addressed, reports .
This final complaint was lodged by a resident of Meriden at the end of September.
Reports by the Local Democracy Reporting Service highlighted that residents in the Meriden ward lodged 11 HS2-related complaints between April and June, marking the highest from any area within that timeframe.
During a Solihull Council meeting on October 24 at the Civic Suite, Councillor Andrew Burrow, who chairs the committee, queried: "I don't know if this is possible, can we warn (Meriden ward) residents in advance of piling (noise)? " In response, Tahir Ahmed, Balfour Beatty Vinci's senior engagement and interface manager – the firm partnering with HS2 for construction works in the West Midlands – assured: "We do communications locally where we feel it is going to cause a disturbance and some additional noise."
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