• STEPHEN Plowden could not be more right in highlighting the urgent need to reappraise the HS2 scheme between Old Oak Common and Euston, (The Trouble with Euston, Letters, March 8).

It is nothing short of scandalous that thriving pubs and thriving trees are wantonly cut down when HS2 Ltd still have not agreed how their proposed railway will approach the Euston terminal, let alone how their construction work can dovetail with Network Rail’s need to improve the efficiency of Euston station for passengers on currently operated services.

It is deeply disappointing that the main political parties nationally dismiss the concerns of locally-elected members as though they were no more than nimbys or ostriches.

They seem to struggle with the concept that a line on a 2D piece of paper is an inadequate representation of a construction in 3D.

It is not too late to restore the pubs and hotels and to replant trees, and to lift the threat to the affordable housing for which supply is so far short of demand.

Old Oak Common would be adequate to accommodate those arriving and departing HS2 phase one. As a temporary solution, it would buy time to give proper consideration to a long-term way forward.

ANDREW BOSI
Wall Street, N1