Henk Bouwman to speak at HS2 Summit on Station Location

19th January 2016

Sheffield Chamber of Commerce has released the name of the first headline speaker that will talk at 'Making the case for Sheffield City Centre HS2 station: the role of business' event on 18th February.

The conference aims to set out the case for a HS2 station in Sheffield City Centre and 'to lay out the facts as clearly as possible'. Henk Bouwman, who is working with the Independent Transport Commission (ITC) consulting on the spatial impact of High Speed Rail in UK cities, will come to the city and explain the economic issues of the HS2 station location. Henk established his own urbanism practice UiP urban Producers in 1998, that specialises in managing change and innovation in Places of Connection, specifically for city centre areas and station districts in Europe and Asia. The portfolio includes a range of work from strategic briefs to concrete implementation plans. Urban-imPulse is based in London and the Netherlands. Henk has just finished a scenario study on UK Rail 2065 for the Forseight programme (Government Office for Science) and worked on a long-term vision for Crewe Superhub with Farrells. Richard Wright, Executive Director of the Chamber said "We are keen to use impartial speakers who explain clearly the economic issues around the location of an HS2 station in any city/region. We cannot get tied up in parochial, or politically driven arguments. This has to be a hard nosed economic decision that delivers the maximum benefits to the economy and the population of the whole region. Henk is leader of the Independent Transport Commission who are shortly to release a report on HS2 and its benefits and is uniquely placed to explain the issues we should consider when making the decision." The event will start at 8 am on Thursday 18 February at the City Hall. To register your place go to www.scci.org.uk/events.