A COUNCILLOR has hit out at a compensation deal as 'peanuts' after only £1m was promised for a relief road.

High Speed Two (HS2) Limited pledged £1.42m towards mitigation measures to alleviate transport concerns in Iver amid plans to relocate the Heathrow Express depot (HEx) from West London to Langley as part of the HS2 rail line construction.

But cllr Wendy Matthews, chairman of Iver Parish Council, has said that fee would barely touch the surface of the total cost of building a relief road in Iver, which she estimates would be between £40-50m.

She said: "They [HS2] said they would pay £1.42m towards the costs of the relief road, but now it would have to cross extra railway lines for the HS2 depot so the bridge over that would make the road much more expensive.

"They offered to contribute £1.42m to that but that is peanuts."

Representatives from Iver submitted its petition to the HS2 Select Committee last month and were due to speak in front of it, but Bucks County Council had already struck up the deal with HS2 in regards to mitigation measures.

Cllr Matthews, who is also a South Bucks District councillor, said: "Both groups presented to the select committee but before we did so Bucks County Council had done a deal with HS2 regarding ours and other areas.

"That deal included a small possible contribution to a relief road provided that the county gets permission and funding - there is so many ifs and buts.

"We were not expecting from our petition for HS2 to contribute the full amount as we know it would cost around £40-50m, but £1.42m in the scheme of things is negligible."

The impact on Iver because of the proposed HEx move could result in even further heavy goods vehicle (HGV) traffic through the village, with some roads potentially facing 2,860 extra journeys per week.

Cllr Matthews added: "We have not reached the end of the road but we are disappointed that we didn't manage to get more money than that.

"We are all working together in Iver to keep each other informed. We just have to wait and see how it pans out."