I SUPPOSE human nature dictates that when you see someone else getting something that you wanted and were promised, you become a little bit jealous.

Just look at the Government’s so-called Integrated Rail Plan which was meant to be the cornerstone of the promise to ‘level up’ the north.

It didn’t quite go to plan, did it? And the biggest losers were our friends in West Yorkshire, especially Leeds and Bradford.

Bradford was meant to provide a direct transport hub on the Manchester-Leeds line (which was meant to be a high-speed line all the way between the two cities and now is only a high-speed on the Manchester side of the Pennines.

And maybe even worse, the HS2 line from Birmingham that was meant to go all the way to Leeds will now terminate outside Nottingham with the rest of the route on an upgraded existing track.

Fine, I get it. You wanted all the extra connectivity. But I’ll hazard a guess there are many, many people whose homes were in the path of the proposed HS2 line who are now breathing a sigh of relief.

I mention this because regular readers of this column will be well aware that I think the whole HS2 scheme is a waste of money (wasting more and more by the day) and an expensive vanity project that should have been consigned to the bin a long, long time ago.

Let’s just put the cost into perspective, shall we? At the time of the 2010 election, estimates of the cost of HS2 ranged upwards of £20bn. By January 2012, when the broad route of the proposed scheme was in place, this had risen to £32.6bn.

In June 2013, the coalition government increased the overall cost to £42.6bn and in November 2015, when the figures were updated, in line with inflation, to £55.7bn.

The DfT’s latest estimate of the cost of HS2 has spiralled even higher, to between £72bn and £98bn but Lord Berkeley, former deputy chairman of the Government’s independent review into the project, says it could climb to £107bn.

I understand the argument that when it is finally up and running (current estimates put that date at something like 2040) it will free up capacity on existing lines, making those lines more accessible for both local and long-distance journeys but better minds than mine have suggested that the eye-watering £107bn could have funded the much-needed rail capacity upgrades and much more besides.

I have mentioned HS2 again because we have a deadline looming. My thanks go to Rosalind Todhunter for reminding us all that the closing date for anyone to comment on the effects on our environments and communities of the HS2 Phase 2b Environmental Consultation is March 31.

As she says: “HS2 will have a very negative impact on Northwich, Knutsford and surrounding communities.

“For example, in my parish of Lach Dennis and Lostock Green, there are 19 footpaths to be temporary or permanently stopped or diverted.

“How do we get out of Lostock Green to the shops, doctors, schools and so on, or even to catch a slow-speed train to Manchester, let alone get to a HS2 station sometime in the future?

“All communities along the route will also have their unfair share of HS2 impacts on their travel connectivity, cohesion, environments.

“How many people know there’s still an opportunity to influence and mitigate the impact of this enormous, time consuming, carbon consuming, rail construction project on their lives, environments and communities for years to come?”

Well said, Rosalind. Well said.

It’s time to make our voices heard.

On another topic, I notice a groundswell of opposition (along with a lot of moaning) about Cheshire West and Chester Council’s new recycling and green waste kerbside collections.

I’ve lived in a number of local authorities over the years and they’ve all had different ways of dealing with household waste and recycling with some better than others.

CWAC’s new approach of full-size recycling wheelie bins and charging for removing green waste isn’t extreme by any stretch of the imagination and is similar to the system employed by a lot of other authorities.

Yes, having to pay £40 to have your garden waste taken away might come as a bit of a shock but I’m counting myself fortunate to have got away with not paying for as long as I have.

So despite all the moaning, I think you are all just going to have to suck it up.