News on HS2 in Solihull

Over the coming months, you may see Laing O’Rourke and J. Murphy & Sons (LM) staff and subcontractors on HS2 sites near you, continuing with our early works for the railway. We want to give you a sense of what we will and won’t be doing in this period.

Ancient woodland sites

As HS2 confirmed in this statement , we have instructed our contractors to hold off clearance of ancient woodlands required for the construction of the railway during the period of the Oakervee review. For more information, please see HS2’s statement: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/hs2-ltds-approach-to-ancient-woodlands-during-the-oakervee-review

However, it will be necessary for HS2 Ltd to undertake certain essential works to enable removal of potential refuge habitat for Great Crested Newts and the closure of badger setts, it may be necessary to first clear discrete areas of scrub and ruderal vegetation.

In addition, certain mitigation measures for the protection of bats will be required, in order to avoid the risk of bats roosting in trees that will be the subject of Clearance Works, in the event that such works resume from January 2020. This work will also need to take place this autumn, ahead of hibernation.

The work will include blocking up holes in trees to stop bats from roosting, as well as potentially removing some selected branches, for the same purpose. However, HS2 Ltd will not remove branches from any ‘ancient’ or ‘veteran’ trees within any ancient woodland This work is required to meet legal requirements and will be undertaken in accordance with the terms of the necessary bat licences granted by Natural England.

Other activities

We will be continuing with other clearance activities this Winter. This includes clearing shrubs, hedgerows and woodland in non-ancient sites, as well as habitat creation.

Our general clearance work close to Solihull will begin in late October around Balsall, moving north towards the site of the Birmingham Interchange Station. This will include fencing and removing vegetation to facilitate construction of the station.

This work needs to continue in order to ensure that main construction work for HS2 can commence on time in future. It is also important to complete this work during this time of year, as it is outside of key periods in the ecological calendar such as bird nesting season – minimising our impact on local wildlife.

For more information about our work in your area, we are holding drop-in events at the following locations:

If you have any questions about HS2 or our works, please contact our HS2 Helpdesk team on  08081 434 434  or email  hs2enquiries@hs2.org.uk .