Council leaders from across the Midlands have hit back at the Government's decision last year to downgrade HS2 - and are now calling for compensation and the decision to be reversed.
In November, Transport Secretary Grant Shapps confirmed what many had already suspected - that the 'eastern leg' of HS2 between Birmingham and Leeds, known as phase 2b, would be curtailed.
Under the Government's new 'Integrated Rail Plan' (IRP), the high-speed line would instead travel just from Birmingham to East Midlands Parkway south west of Nottingham before switching to existing tracks and heading to destinations in the East Midlands and Yorkshire.
