HS2 wins High Court fight with protesters
HS2 bosses complained that protesters were unlawfully occupying a path on a construction site in Hillingdon.
Environmental campaigners opposed to the HS2 rail line running through a woodland area in west London have lost their latest court fight.
HS2 bosses complained that protesters were unlawfully occupying a path at a construction site in Hillingdon and asked Judge David Holland to grant them “possession”.
Protesters had raised a number of environmental concerns, including water pollution fears, disagreed and opposed HS2’s possession application.
The judge, who analysed arguments at a High Court hearing in October, ruled in favour of HS2 on Thursday and made a possession order.
He said protests could lawfully be staged in the vicinity of the construction site, but not on the footpath.
In early 2018, then transport secretary Chris Grayling won a High Court fight with the same group of protesters.
A judge imposed an injunction banning “unlawful protest activities” in and around the construction site.
