New homes in South Yorkshire will be demolished after the Government confirmed the route of HS2.
Properties on the Shimmer housing estate in Mexborough will be bulldozed to make way for the high-speed railway, the Department for Transport (DfT) said.
Residents will lose their homes because ministers decided the line should serve the existing Sheffield city centre station after proposals to run trains to Meadowhall shopping centre were shelved.
Labour's Rotherham MP Sarah Champion said she was "furious" because South Yorkshire "won't get a proper stop".
The DfT said 16 properties on the Shimmer estate will be demolished.
Some respondents to a Government consultation had argued that the plans should take into account all 216 homes originally planned at the site.
Transport Secretary Chris Grayling's decision on the route from Crewe to Manchester and Birmingham to the East Midlands and Leeds confirms six of the seven changes included in the November consultation.
Mr Grayling decided not to proceed with a proposal to move the line to the east of Measham, Leicestershire.
The railway will run to the west of the village with a viaduct extended to mitigate the impact on commercial properties.
The route decision means no new stations will be built in South Yorkshire.
HS2 trains will serve Sheffield by running along a spur on existing track into the city's main station and then out again to eventually rejoin the high-speed line.
Former labour leader Ed Miliband accused Mr Grayling of a "gross discourtesy" as the route announcement was confirmed in a written policy paper when he had been expected to come to the despatch box and make a statement to Parliament.
Troubled construction giant Carillion is among the firms awarded contracts for building the first phase of the railway.
The deals are worth £6.6 billion in total and will see tunnels, embankments and viaducts constructed between London and Birmingham.
A number of foreign firms were successful in bidding for the work, including Swedish-based Skanska, French company Bouygues Travaux and Austria's Strabag.
The contracts are estimated to support 16,000 jobs.
A partnership featuring Carillion has been commissioned for two of the projects.
The firm suffered a dramatic collapse in its share price last week after announcing a profit warning which saw almost £600 million wiped from its value.
Mr Grayling said: "Britain's new railway line will bring huge economic benefits across the country and help ensure this Government delivers on its promise to spread wealth beyond London and the South East.
"But as well as creating skilled jobs, apprenticeships and business opportunities, it will also mean real day-to-day improvements for people across the country.
"By building a whole new railway line for high-speed intercity connections, we will free up local services, meaning more comfort, more seats and more trains for passengers across the North and the Midlands.
"We will now press ahead with building the line, while continuing to ensure affected communities get appropriate support and are treated with fairness, compassion and respect."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel