Fireworks storage facility is seized by HS2 despite route being axed
A fireworks storage facility located on the route of the cancelled HS2 northern leg has been seized despite the Government axing the route seven months ago.
SGB World Services is being evicted from its 400-ton facility in rural Staffordshire so HS2 can take control of the area which had lay in the path of the planned route.
The company, which had run the site for nine years, now faces ruin because it cannot find alternative premises for such a specialised and dangerous line of work.
The situation is an example of how the HS2 northern leg continues to swallow up taxpayers’ cash even after it was axed by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak last October.
Although the section was cancelled last October in a hugely controversial decision, HS2 had already secured the 13-year lease the company had with landowner Swynnerton Estates – owned by Benjamin Fitzherbert, son of the 15th Lord Stafford.
Contractors now must carry on as though HS2 is still being built through the area because – under the lease’s terms – the land must be made safe with no provision for SGB to remain onsite, before any early exit from the lease can be negotiated.
On Wednesday, around 40 bailiffs, contractors, security guards and HS2 officials descended on the isolated facility at the start of an operation to evict the company and clear the land – and its highly-volatile stock – that is expected to take months.
Bailiff Carl Harrison (right, in black) and HS2’s Anthony Shepherdson speak to Simon Boote (far right), who runs SGB World Services which is being evicted from its facility in Staffordshire
Simon Boote said his firm SGB, which had run the fireworks storage site for nine years, now faces ruin because it cannot find alternative premises for such a specialised line of work
SGB World Services is now being evicted from its 400-ton facility in rural Staffordshire
Arrangements to make the facility safe will include the erection of security fencing, electrical work and the deployment of gardeners to cut back shrubbery in order to make sure nothing is missed on the site, which houses four wartime bunkers and multiple freight containers, where the explosives have been stored.
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It is understood only one of the bunkers lay in the path of the projected railway, but the others were all close enough to pose a threat to passengers on the now-scrapped line.
Although the high speed railway had always threatened to go through the area, Simon Boote, who runs SGB, said his site’s fate was only confirmed when Phase 2a of HS2 from Birmingham to Crewe was given Royal Assent in February 2021.
Mr Boote said a notice of eviction was issued on June 13 last year, when HS2 purchased the site’s lease off Swynnerton Estates, which had 13 years left to run.
But Mr Boote said that following Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s announcement four months later that the second leg of the railway was being shelved, ‘we thought (the threat of closure) had gone away’, he said.
HS2’s Acquisitions Manager Anthony Shepherdson was the first to arrive on site on Wednesday morning, accompanied by High Court enforcer Carl Harrison.
They had the paperwork required to remove Mr Boote and a colleague. They were escorted half-a-mile down the track, away from the storage site to a public lane, where they men watched as a dizzying array of men and equipment – all paid for by the taxpayer – arrived to take their place.
Half-a-dozen cars contained security men from Black Onyx Security, before a van containing five or six further security men – dressed in what looked like riot gear – pulled up.
The original route of HS2 ran onto Leeds and Manchester from Birmingham and London
The only leg of the HS2 route which is still set to go ahead is London Euston to Birmingham
Arrangements to make the facility safe will include the erection of security fencing
Equipment arriving at the site on Wednesday as a complex operation to make it safe begins
Another van bearing the logo of Black Onyx Concepts, a security and risk management consultancy, then arrived followed by two more towing two portable cabins, then a lorry with lighting towers and a fuel tank and generator.
Paramedics and a van marked ‘Welfare Unit’ also arrived, along with a forklift truck- towed 200 miles by a contractor from South London, who said he had stayed locally overnight.
‘This is what HS2 is all about,’ said Mr Boote. ‘There’s a firm two miles away that hires this equipment but when it comes to taxpayers’ money no expense is spared.’
Half an hour later, a lorry-load of fencing arrived to seal off the storage sites and a little later an even bigger load of similar fencing. Then came the mobile toilets.
‘This will be costing the taxpayer millions’ Mr Boote added. ‘It makes no sense. There will be security on here 24/7 for months I’d guess. Even though the line has been cancelled, the gravy train is still running.’
HS2 will now take control of the area which had lay in the path of the planned route
Bailiff Carl Harrison (right) speaks to Simon Boote (centre, in orange jacket) from SGB
Contractors now must carry on as though HS2 is still being built through the area
Simon Boote said he cannot find alternative premises for such a dangerous line of work
As well as the public expense, Mr Boote is outraged at the risks being taken by HS2 and the Department for Transport.
Although the site was being ‘run down’, there remain 14 tons of high grade fireworks and Mr Boote doubts HS2 has anyone qualified to take it over.
‘If something went wrong on this site it’s a big, big problem,’ he said. ‘They’re lining themselves up to have to destroy a large quantity of fireworks and explosives.
‘It would have been run-down naturally by the end of the year but they have taken it on themselves and in doing so have ridden roughshod over the Health and Safety Executive’s Explosives directive.’
There is concern locally over just what the Department for Transport has planned for the ordnance stored in the bunkers and freight containers at the site in Lower Hatton.
A van bearing the logo of Black Onyx Concepts, a security and risk management consultancy
High Court enforcer Carl Harrison was among the people on site on Wednesday morning
About 40 bailiffs, contractors, security guards and HS2 officials descended on the facility
SGB’s Simon Boote said he fears that closing his site will drive ‘more fireworks underground’
The site dates back to 1939 when it was opened as Royal Ordnance Factory Swynnerton, operating as both a bomb storage site and grenade factory on separate plots.
It predominantly stores fireworks for display companies or importers until needed in the run-up to November 5 celebrations, but the bulk of the fireworks remaining belong to SGB’s own display firework company.
Mr Boote said he fears that closing his site will drive ‘more fireworks underground – they won’t be stored in a safe place’, and warns of a potential repeat of the Fauld explosion near Tutbury, Staffordshire.
The village was the scene of the largest explosion on UK soil when more than 3,000 military munitions exploded en masse in a wartime underground storage depot at RAF Fauld in November 1944, creating a 1,000ft-wide crater.
The legal requirements for storing explosives are set out in the Explosives Regulations 2014. The amount that can be stored, where it can be stored and for how long will depend on the type of explosive and the quantity.
Bailiff Carl Harrison (left) is joined by HS2 acquisition manager Anthony Shepherdson
Simon Boote is outraged at the risks being taken by HS2 and the Department for Transport
Occupiers of licensed sites must take all due precautions to prevent unauthorised access
The DfT acquired the leasehold of four bunkers on the Swynnerton Estate in June 2023
But anyone manufacturing and/or storing explosives would normally need to hold a licence even if they are carrying out the activities on behalf of a third party.
Occupiers of licensed sites must take all due precautions to prevent unauthorised access.
Mr Boote said complying with the various regulations is a difficult process, meaning it is ‘extremely hard’ to obtain an explosives licence.
He said HS2 commissioned two acquisitions and surveying agencies to try to identify an alternative site for his business, ‘but neither party could identify one’ in the West Midlands, which offers the benefit of good transport links to the rest of the UK.
‘There will now be one less place for companies to take their products – and that puts the importers’ business at risk too,’ added Mr Boote. ‘All for a railway that no longer exists.’
HS2 secured the 13-year lease the company had with landowner Swynnerton Estates
The fireworks storage facility located on the cancelled northern leg of HS2 has been seized
The site has been seized despite the Government axing HS2’s northern leg seven months ago
Mr Fitzherbert said the lease was a ‘contractual relationship’ between SGB and HS2 and was nothing to do with his estate.
‘How HS2 go about enforcing the terms of the lease is their business. We just don’t want to be left with the liability of explosives on the site (if and when the lease is sold back).’
A spokesman for HS2 Ltd said: ‘The Secretary of State for Transport acquired the leasehold of four bunkers on the Swynnerton Estate in June 2023 before the announcement on Phase 2 of HS2.
‘Over the course of the last 10 months HS2 Ltd has repeatedly asked the previous leaseholder to vacate the bunkers. The terms of the lease do not allow for the site to be transferred to anyone. During this time we have been in dialogue with the Health and Safety Executive and the Swynnerton Estate to safely plan our taking possession.’
In cancelling Phase 2a last year, Mr Sunak said the government would invest £36billion saved from HS2 in other transport projects across the UK, including a number of road schemes.
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