Cubbington Wood Stop HS2 Protest Camp to host two weekend events

The events will help people to learn about their mission to protect the endangered ancient woodlands from ongoing HS2 works.

The government recently gave the green light to the High Speed 2 rail project linking London to Birmingham, and then on to Manchester and Leeds. HS2 is due to be completed by 2040.

But Matt Bishop, the founder of the Stop HS2 camp in Cubbington Wood, said he has no plans to give up his stand to protect the ancient woodlands.

The first of the two events will be a public meeting for supporters of the Cubbington Wood Protest Camp held tomorrow (Friday February 21) at 7pm at the Cubbington Village Hall.

Matt Bishop, with the Walk the Line - Stop HS2 group who organised the Cubbington Wood Protest Camp, said: "It's for anybody involved in supporting the camp, and we want to explain why we are continuing to try and protect the woods."

The Cubbington Wood Protest Camp group will host a second community event from 1 to 3.30pm on Sunday February 23 at the Cubbington Village Hall.

The Sunday event will include several guest speakers such as Matt Bishop and Joe Rukin, the campaign manager for the Stop HS2 Campaign, among others. A woman will also do a slideshow on the history of the Cubbington Wood Protest Camp.

Matt said: "We're creating a model for a community engagement event. There's more broad information about HS2 as a whole. We'll be looking for people to tell us what they wanted to know about HS2.

"Some people want to know about the road closures and some people want to know about the marks on the trees.

More than 100 people turned out for a peaceful protest walk last week in Cubbington.

Matt said: "It was a last minute call out to show a message to parliament that people don't want HS2."

Stop HS2 campaigners launched a camp at Cubbington Wood in October last year, and a few later launched another similar protest camp in Crackley Wood.