HS2: Bailiffs start evicting HS2 protesters from camp – as police move in to ‘keep the peace’

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Bailiffs today began evicting anti-HS2 protesters led by veteran activist Swampy from a makeshift camp near London’s Euston Station, where they had spent months secretly digging a dangerous 100ft tunnel.

HS2 Rebellion activists scaled cranes and clambered onto wooden platforms in the trees in Euston Square Gardens as enforcement officers moved to evict the environmentalists from the Tree Protection Camp, which was set up in September in protest against the £170billion rail project. 

One protester was removed by enforcement agents and could be heard shouting as he was carried out from the makeshift camp by staff from the National Eviction Team, part of the High Court Enforcement group – while ‘tree protectors’ barricaded themselves in their tunnel, codenamed Calvin. 

The protest group, which fears that HS2 will destroy the gardens by building a temporary taxi rank, claimed an ‘illegal eviction’ of the camp began shortly before 5am today and said that bailiffs from the National Eviction Team had ‘entered the camp under cover of darkness’.  

They said they were ‘prepared for a length siege’ as they accused HS2 of ‘breaking the law by attempting an eviction without a court order and during the national coronavirus lockdown’ while hiding in the tunnel – which they spent two months digging and called their ‘best defence’ against eviction.

The group said their lawyers have written to HS2 ‘advising them of the illegality of any such eviction attempt at this time’. However, an HS2 spokeswoman blasted the demonstrators’ ‘illegal’ occupation and said it presented a ‘danger’ to HS2 staff and High Court enforcement officers, while the Met Police said a number of officers were sent to the eviction site – but only to assist bailiffs should there be any breach of the peace.  

The HS2 rail project, which is set to link London, Birmingham, Manchester and Leeds, and rebalance the UK’s economy, has been called ‘expensive, wasteful and destructive’ by environmentalists. 

Anti-HS2 protesters claim the line will destroy or irreparably damage 108 ancient woodlands and 693 wildlife sites, and that Euston Square Gardens will be built over with a temporary taxi rank before being sold off to developers. 

They added that ‘tree protectors’ were prepared to occupy the tunnels, dug ‘in secret’ over the last few months, and would stay underground ‘for as long as it takes to stop HS2’.

Among their number is Dr Larch Maxey, an Extinction Rebellion activist who was a full-time volunteer for the radical group in 2019 and helped organise hunger strike occupations that year.

In an interview with the Guardian, the long-time climate activist said he had a PhD in sustainability and was a geography lecturer and post-doctoral researcher for 17 but had no income and described himself as a ‘relaxed freegan’ – someone who only eats food that would be going to waste.  

However, HS2 bosses insist that most ancient woodland will ‘remain intact’. Responding to the Euston Gardens encampment, an HS2 spokesman said: ‘Protests such as these are costly to the taxpayer and a danger to the safety of the protesters, HS2 staff, High Court enforcement officers and the general public, as well as putting unnecessary strain on the emergency services during the pandemic.’

The first phase of the rail link between London and Birmingham will not open until 2028 – while the second, to Manchester and Leeds, has been delayed until 2035-40. 

HS2 Rebellion called on the Government to scrap the scheme ‘before it is too late’ and argued for a National Citizens Assembly to ‘lead the way out of the climate and ecological emergency’.  

One protester, Blue Sanford, 18, from London, said: ‘I’m angry that the Government is still effectively ignoring this crisis despite declaring a climate and ecological emergency two years ago. 

‘I’m in this tunnel because they are irresponsibly putting my life at risk from the climate and ecological emergency. They are behaving in a way that is so reckless and unsafe that I don’t feel they are giving us any option but to protest in this way to help save our own lives and the lives of all the people round the world.’

Video footage from inside, filmed by activists, shows a cramped, winding passage with wooden props against its walls. In some parts they can be seen removing loose earth with just a trowel.  

A spokesman for the group said Swampy, real name Daniel Hooper, had been an ‘invaluable source of expertise’ in helping to dig the tunnel. The group said last night that it expects to face eviction ‘imminently’. 

It said tunnellers ‘worked around the clock, using pickaxes, shovels, buckets and shifts of two to 12 people at a time’. The entrance is concealed by a ‘fortified stronghold’, complete with a tower built from pallets, which activists have nicknamed Buckingham Pallets. 

Activists are living in a main chamber of the tunnel, with stashes of tinned food and vegetables stored along its length.

Blue told the BBC the tunnel was ‘very dangerous and life threatening’ but it was their ‘best defence’ against being evicted. ‘It is not about us martyring ourselves, it is about delaying and stopping HS2,’ he said. ‘This is the only way I can effect change, I would sacrifice everything for the climate ecological emergency to not be happening.’  

The spokeswoman for HS2 Ltd said: ‘Illegal action such as this is costly to the taxpayer and a danger to the safety of the activists, HS2 staff, High Court enforcement officers and the general public, as well as putting unnecessary strain on the emergency services during the pandemic.

‘Safety is our first priority when taking possession of land and removing illegal encampments.’

She said HS2 will provide ‘a cleaner, greener way to travel, helping to cut the number of cars and lorries on our roads, reduce demand for domestic flights, and help the country to cut its carbon emissions in the fight against climate change’. 

The spokeswoman added that HS2 has been approved by MPs on ‘multiple occasions’, will support Britain’s economic recovery and is providing thousands of jobs.

Construction work started in September on Phase 1 of HS2 from London to Birmingham. Phase 2a is planned to run from Birmingham to Crewe, and Phase 2b from Crewe to Manchester, and from Birmingham to Leeds.

The Government-commissioned Oakervee Review considered a cost estimate for the project by an external consultant that put its final bill at £106.6 billion in fourth quarter of 2015 prices.

The review commissioned a comparative analysis of this estimate and those by HS2 Ltd and said characteristics of major rail infrastructure cost plans, according to evidence from Network Rail, were ‘not evident’ in the external estimate.

The review said it seemed amounts allocated towards major construction works were too low, and amounts allocated towards rail systems seemed too high.

Despite it running tens of billions of pounds over budget and several years behind schedule, Boris Johnson gave the green light for the railway in February 2020.