Villagers protest against HS2 Crofton route plan

Campaigners in a village affected by the HS2 route have staged a protest as officials came to talk about the plans.

People living in Crofton, Wakefield, say the village will be destroyed by high-speed trains passing through.

Earlier this month it was announced a major depot in the route would be built in Leeds rather than their village, which residents claimed as a victory.

However, resident Paul Sandhan said the new rail track would still cause noise and spoil the landscape.

Mr Sandhan, from Crofton Against HS2, said: "We'll be faced with a 19m-high viaduct between Crofton and Sharlston with 225mph trains running through it obviously giving huge noise problems."

The initial plan is for a new railway line between London and the West Midlands carrying 400m-long (1,300ft) trains with as many as 1,100 seats per train.

They would operate at speeds of up to 250mph - faster than any current operating speed in Europe - and would run as often as 14 times an hour in each direction.

This would be followed by a V-shaped second phase taking services from Birmingham to Manchester and Leeds.

The Department for Transport (DfT) says there will be almost 15,000 seats an hour on trains between London and the cities of Birmingham, Manchester and Leeds - treble the current capacity.

The protest took place as HS2 developers held a drop-in information session in the village.

Leonie Dubois, head of engagement for HS2, said planting and noise barriers would be put in place to allay fears.

She added: "The purpose of the event here is to show the community of Crofton the latest developments and allow them to come and talk to us and importantly to tell us things we can do to change the design to make it better."