Summit urges Sheffield region to make right decision on HS2 station location

Sheffield’s business region must quickly come to a collective agreement on the location for the Sheffield HS2 station, according to speakers at a major summit.

Organised by Sheffield Chamber of Commerce, ‘Getting the right location for the Sheffield City Region HS2 station: the role of business’ heard from key speakers including Henk Bouwman, currently working with the Independent Transport Commission (ITC), Gerald Jennings, President of Leeds Chamber of Commerce, and investment manager Justin Urquhart Stewart.

More than 200 guests were present in Sheffield City Hall to see the debate on whether the HS2 station should be in the city centre at Victoria or at Meadowhall.

Richard Wright, Sheffield Chamber’s executive director, told the audience: “HS2 will, without doubt, have enormous implications for the future economy of the region. We’ve got to get behind the right decision, because, while we’re bickering, the final decision will be made later this year. We can’t afford to end up with the wrong location.

“We know there are sensitivities and differing views around the region but must not lose sight of our ambition to be a significant contributor to the Northern Powerhouse and the need to attract inward investment – and the station location will affect that.”

Edward Highfield, director of Creative Sheffield, told the summit that the HS2 was a “once in a generation investment”.

He said: “It’s not a silver bullet or a magic pill, but it is a catalyst. It is utterly inconceivable that Leeds or Manchester would accept the reduced impact of a Parkway station.

“Getting Sheffield punching its weight will bring more benefit to the whole city region.”

Henk Bouwman gave a European perspective sharing experiences of high speed rail stations and infrastructure projects in Lille, Bordeaux and Rotterdam and urged that the location needed to be considered on its future, saying: “In real terms 2065 is tomorrow.”

He said: “The high speed station is your address on a national and European level and it should represent a Metropolitan region.”

Gerald Jennings, President of Leeds Chamber of Commerce, also commented: “You have a voice, sometimes we don’t think we do but we found ours and used it in a positive way. Initially people thought it was all about speed but, for us, it’s all about capacity.

Consensus was key to Leeds’ HS2 decision, he explained, with the LEP, local authorities and the chamber all agreeing on the location.

He added: “Collectively everyone signed up to those principles and that was hugely important and persuasive. You have got to act together. It was really important that we nailed down where the station was going to be as it was clear the clock was ticking.”

Justin Urquhart Stewart told the summit people outside the city and in the south “couldn’t really see the difference” between Victoria and Meadowhall.

He stated: “It is a rather parochial attitude and the longer you take to decide what’s going on the more it erodes confidence. Keep up the momentum, use your history and make a decision in a timely and effective manner.

“Make a decision, get on with it and make it happen.”

Concluding the summit, Richard Wright said Chamber President Jillian Thomas would be writing to Chancellor George Osborne and Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin to call for an independent economic review into the decision on station location.

He told attendees: “This shouldn’t be about one set of stakeholders arguing with others - business has got to rise above that.

“I encourage you to add your business names to the appendix of our letter.

“As a Chamber we believe in the maximum economic return. Let’s put the confusion behind us and agree we will get behind the findings of that review.”

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