An Oldham councillor has raised questions over plans for Saddleworth after Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announced that the remaining phases of HS2, from Birmingham to Manchester, would be scrapped.

Some parts of the Northern Powerhouse Rail line were due to use HS2 rails in order to connect the North West to the North East via high-speed rail.

Saddleworth councillor Sam Al-Hamdani said the scrapping of HS2 would have "massive implications for Saddleworth" and likened new plans to having been "drawn on the back of a fag packet".

He said: “Rishi Sunak seems to have just thrown a large shopping list of projects up in the air and named a few, with no thought or consideration as to how they actually fit together.

“We have been desperate for clarity on the Northern Powerhouse line, which is threatening to bulldoze through Saddleworth, and push all the local services out of the way.

"Does this mean that they have reverted to their original plans to build a line through Bradford? Who knows!

“The Government seem to be playing the hokey-cokey with huge multi-billion projects. You put Euston in, you take Manchester out … all we know for certain is that it has completely shaken private investors’ confidence in the North West.”

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A Department for Transport spokesperson said the government would be building the connections, with Northern Powerhouse Rail going ahead ‘as usual’, pointing to a line in a government press release announcing ‘Network North’ which says: “We will also invest a further £12 billion to better connect Manchester to Liverpool. This would allow the delivery of Northern Powerhouse Rail as previously planned, including high-speed lines.”

However, the statement continues that the government “will work with local leaders to agree whether they wish to suggest other ways to achieve the objectives within that cost envelope”.

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In response, Cllr Al-Hamdani raised further questions.

He added: "The Liverpool to Manchester improvements were already planned. Are the DfT saying that because of the collapse of HS2, they will have to invest an extra £12 billion to make the Liverpool to Manchester connection work?

"If so, they have burnt through one-third of the projected savings from cancelling the largest public transport investment ever in the North West, just to do something they were already doing. 

“The Northern Powerhouse was originally supposed to be a new line through Bradford. This has been abandoned in favour of a plan which would generously be described as having been drawn on the back of a fag packet.

“Apparently an extra £12 billion needs to be spent just to get it as far as Manchester. I know the Government are trying to crack down on smokers, but this could be the most expensive fag packet in history.”