Hilary Wharf and Bruce Weston, Wharf Weston Rail Consultants and Directors of HS2 Action Alliance
Wharf Weston management consultancy was established in 1990 by Hilary Wharf (after a career in British Coal) and has had a continuous close association working for the key rail organisations in the UK for the last 20 years.
The consultancy has skills in human resources and labour relations, business economics, cost benefit analysis and mathematical modelling. Hilary is an economist and Bruce an operational research scientist. For the last 6 years they have worked almost exclusively for train companies helping them win bids for rail franchises.
Since March 2010, and with the government suspending rail franchise competitions, they have worked full time pro-bono on HS2.
Having established with others HS2 Action Alliance (that now has 73 affiliated groups) they initiated a 6-myths campaign against HS2, produced critiques of the HS2 Business Case, The Alternatives to HS2, the Wider Economic Benefits, and submissions to Transport Select Committee. They have debated the issues with HS2 Ltd, DfT, MPs, journalists including face-to-face with Philip Hammond at meetings and on TV.
They also led the work on Compensation, and Blight, and developing and promoting an alternative scheme, resulting in Government promising a further scheme to address property blight.
Most recently in 2011 Hilary has been invited to attend meetings with a group of local authorities, known as 51M, who have come together to oppose HS2, and Bruce is contributing to the Taxpayers Alliance Campaign against HS2 responding to allegations by Greenguage21 (a pressure group supporting HS2).
They are convinced the case for HS2 is flawed and that there are credible alternatives that are cheaper and represent much better value for the taxpayer.
Graham Long - Director HS2AA
Graham qualified as an Associate of the Chartered Institute of Bankers in 1975, subsequently holding a variety of senior managerial positions in Midland/HSBC Bank, including Area Director, Coventry & Warwickshire, Divisional Head of Credit for the Midlands and finally as Head of Commercial C&R for the UK & Europe.
Graham has been a Governor at Coventry University since 2008 and is currently Chair of the Finance and Estates Committee. External experience has included chair of the major companies section of Coventry & Warwickshire CCI and a member of the West Midlands Industrial Development Board Grants Committee.