Hole near Euston station after work on the HS2 line was ‘paused’

• THOSE who are still hoping for HS2 to run into Euston should not hold their breath.

Especially those at Camden Council who last week were still sounding hopeful that the prime minister, who has virtually washed his hands of the whole project, would keep his promise on this and also change his mind on axing the line to Manchester.

Instead of hanging on to this pipe dream they should concentrate on wresting back the compulsorily purchased land, as the plan which it was originally appropriated for has been radically changed.

Given the financial state of the country and the latest decisions by the prime minister Rishi Sunak on these matters, it is destined to hit the buffers at Old Oak Common, where a brand-new station is being built.

Even if by some fluke the money was somehow found to finish the line to Euston by selling off land to the Lendlease company, in return, they would want to saturate the area with gigantic blocks of expensive flats and offices, not social housing.

It would also mean inflicting another 20-odd years of nightmarish devastation on Camden’s people, who have been forced to endure needless misery caused by the catastrophic HS2 invasion, which has now turned into the country’s most expensive folly and transformed one of the green hearts of Camden into a wrecked wasteland.

Camden should start putting in place a stunning new green environment plan, with plenty of social housing to counteract this government’s vicious policy of no-fault evictions.

From day one this scheme has been more about a “land-grab” under the guise of “levelling up.”

But let us just, for a minute, imagine what really could have been achieved from the £153billion odd, which I think they have already squandered.

Instead, every rail line in Britain could have been given a major overhaul, plus some of the lines that Dr Richard Beeching “axed” in the early 1960s, and which Flanders and Swann (Michael and Donald) sang so lamentably about in The Slow Train, and which still lie dormant, could have all been brought back to use.

MIKE GEORGE, NW5