Polo club fears huge impact of nine-month closure of road from Southam to Leamington due to HS2 works

Major Richard Carney MBE, the polo club's operations director, raised the concerns after the high-speed rail company made the annoucnement about the closure at the end of last week.

He said: “It’s not only our business at the Polo Club and our onsite pub The Millstone Hare that the nine-month road closure is affecting, we also have a number of businesses who operate from our business hub, Richard George, Xreflow, IXL Events Centre and many others that this will impact hugely.

"It's not the temporary road closure that is the issue it’s the timing and the length of time. We were informed it was closing September – November which would have had less of an impact on our business as we streamlined the activities onsite to coincide with this.

"We are working closely with HS2 to ensure that our guests and all visitors to our site and pub will be able to access the road via Ufton and still visit our venue during this time.”

Residents, councillors and Kenilworth and Southam MP Jeremy Wright have all expressed concerns about the road closure.HS2 has said: "HS2 takes its responsibility to impacted communities very seriously, and we try to minimise disruption to local people and businesses wherever possible.

"Closing the A425, rather than the alternative proposal of building a diversion road, significantly reduces the environmental impact of construction, the scale of work required, and the volume of construction traffic in the local area.

"This improved plan also cuts the amount of time HS2’s contractors Balfour Beatty Vinci will be working in this area.

“HS2 is already playing a pivotal role in helping Britain’s economic recovery as the country emerges from lockdown.

"There are 10,000 people already working on the HS2 project and we recently announced a further 22,000 jobs across the country, including 7,000 in the Midlands, at a time when we need them most.”

For more information about the road closure click here.