By Amy Orton

A "gloss" is being put on the "so called" local benefits of HS2 according to one Leicestershire councillor.

Work on the high speed rail service will come close to Ashby, Measham and surrounding villages if the controversial scheme get the go-ahead.

But leader of the Lib Dem opposition at County Hall, Simon Galton, said it is unclear what the benefits of the huge project will be for Leicestershire following the publication of a report which says the county could cash in up to £30 million.

Simon Galton said: "There seems to be a lot of gloss being put on these so called benefits.

"Whatever happens, if you live in Leicestershire you will have to use traditional rail services to get to where you can use HS2 services. I'm not sure that is a benefit.

"The report suggests that locally, there will be benefits while it is built, but what about after that? It's not clear what the long term benefits will be for Leicestershire."

The report estimates that the track's construction could result in a £30 million boost for the county but the man heading up the county council's task force – Bernard Evans – later admitted that the monetary value of the local phase would be difficult to quantify.

Reduced road closures, local businesses tendering for contracts associated with the construction and minimising delays are all listed under the benefits heading in the report.

The report also outlines plans to build a temporary slip road to stop construction traffic driving through villages near to where the track will be built.

Coun Galton added: "Reducing the amount of time a road will be closed or building a temporary slip road to minimise disruption in villages can hardly be described as benefits, these are things that should be done regardless.

"How someone can say that stopping a road closure is a £5 million benefit I don't know. It might stop it costing us £5 million but it's not a net gain to us."

The document, which provides an update on the multi-billion pound national project, also lists potential benefits for the county.

Cabinet member for HS2, Councillor Trevor Pendleton, said: "There are plenty of benefits and that's what we're now focussing on.

"We have to make sure we are poised to take advantage of the potential economic benefits for the area.

"We're confident that we've done a solid job to ensure we will minimise the impact.

"We have reviewed our position, we were of the opinion that there was 'all the pain and no gain' but in 2016 we decided to take a different approach.

"We're committed to making sure we benefit as a county."

One extract from the report reads: "Where possible, these benefits will be monetised over the development and delivery of the HS2 project. The aim is to secure around £1million additional benefit per kilometre of HS2 track (approx. £30million), over and above that which would have been provided by the HS2 project, had the county council not taken a proactive approach."

Coun Pendleton said: "It's the biggest infrastructure project in a generation. The skills that are going to be required to keep pushing this through will wash back into future construction and projects.

"It will be a real skills boost for the area."

He added that although there won't be a station in Leicestershire, residents will still make use of the network.

"There won't be any stops in the county but the nearest station will be just seven or eight miles over the border. People from the county will use this, they will benefit.

"It will also mean that Leicester is better connected than ever before to Nottingham and Derby.

"There will be other infrastructure benefits too, but I can't say any more about that until we know more."

Part of the HS2 team's remit is to prepare for when the hybrid bill is published.

Coun Pendleton said: "The reality is that until we see what the bill says, we don't know what we want to say in response to it.

"Now, we have a fairly good idea of the things that could be said and we are preparing as well as we can for those.

"But, we need to be ready to lobby, we need to be as prepared as possible to get down to London and fight our corner."

The team have also been working closely with parish and district councils in the areas of the county that will be affected.

"As a county we know our area better than others, we know the roads and when they are used, that means we can make suggestions like rather than closing the road for 12 months, can we close it in these weeks or for this many weekends, that's the mitigation side of things.

"The parish and district councils are even closer to our communities and that's why we're committed to working closely with them throughout."