HS2 - Tory MP Accuses Councils Of 'Illegally' Spending £1m Of Taxpayers Money To Fight High Speed Rail

A Conservative MP has accused Tory-run local authorities of potentially breaking the law by spending £1 million of taxpayers money opposing High Speed Rail.

Graham Evans has written to the Audit Commission to demand they investigate allegations that nine southern English authorities have spent a total of £1,175,000 on fighting the plan to connect London with Birmingham, Manchester and Leeds via new rail link.

The Weaver Vale MP has argued that High Speed Rail is necessary to create jobs in his constituency and tackle the North-South divide. He has accused southern councils run by members of his own party of "paying to keep the North poorer".

He said: "Local authorities should not use public funds to mount publicity campaigns whose primary purpose is to persuade the public to hold a particular view on a question of policy."

“This is a disgraceful misuse of public money. Councils know the rules and have wilfully broken them to suit their own political ambitions."

Evans said the practice broke strict rules governing the use of taxpayers money for lobbying and publicity and was therefore "potentially illegal".

The Code of Recommended Practice on Local Council Publicity states: "Local authorities, like other public authorities, should not use public funds to mount publicity campaigns whose primary purpose is to persuade the public to hold a particular view on a question of policy."

Evans identifies the culprits as:

According to Evans the councils are contributing the money to a ‘fighting fund’ run by 51m3, the anti high-speed rail lobbying group set up by seventeen local authorities set up to scupper High Speed Rail.

He said the money was the the equivalent to the council tax paid by 1,000 households.

The Department for Transport estimates High Speed Rail will cost £32 billion to construct, and generate benefits of around £44 billion, with revenues totaling a further £27 billion.

Opponents of the scheme include many Tory MPs who are wary of a noisy new train line slicing through their constituencies. Cheryl Gillan, the Welsh secretary and Buckinghamshire MP, publicly opposed the scheme despite being a member of the cabinet.

Evans has previously attacked opponents of the scheme as being an "alliance of luddites and nimbys".

Ironically the Audit Commision, which is being scrapped by the coalition, has itself been attacked for spending public money in a similar way as the councils are alleged to have.

Before the general election the public spending watchdog ,to which Evans has complained, was accused by the Conservatives of hiring a public affairs firm to lobby government.