Parish councillors have seen their objection to a major new HS2 build ignored by council planners.

HS2 has been granted planning permission for its new portal building at Burton Green, updating the designs that were previously agreed.

Burton Green Parish Council wrote a detailed objection to the application, but the fresh scheme was signed off by Warwick District Council this week.

The high speed rail developer was given the green light for the 'Burton Green Portal Building' in November 2024, with the facility to be built near Cromwell Lane.

Now the designs have been modified, increasing the size of the building, changing the internal layout and altering the landscaping so "more land is available to be returned to agriculture".

The building will be 67 metres long, 20.2 metres wide and 9.1 metres high.

But parish councillors said the new look was not acceptable.

"The revised plans appear to significantly alter the original designs of 2015 and November 2024," the council's objection said. 

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"Such amendments risk undermining the visual integrity of the local landscape and may adversely affect nearby residents through increased noise and light pollution. 

"Furthermore, the new design is not as sympathetic to the local context of the area in relation to the adjacent Greenway, Village Hall and to local residents especially those at Broadwell Wood Residential Park. 

"In addition, the lack of adequate transparency and engagement with the community regarding these changes is deeply concerning and disappointing and fails to meet HS2's own landscape design vision, methodology and principles as laid out in HS2 Landscape Design Approach July 2016 and many other HS2 documents."

Plans show the portal building will be at the eastern end of the tunnel and a new maintenance road will also be built.

The HS2 Act decrees the building will be built, with the district council only able to comment on elements of its design.

Signing off on the plans, a council report said: "Officers are satisfied that the proposal is not considered to result in harm to the local environment or amenity, nature conservation or archaeology."

HS2 said the portal building will "accommodate Mechanical, Electrical and Plumbing systems".

"In addition to this, there will be several functional areas that support rail operations and maintenance of the HS2 line," the application added.

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Constructed with precast concrete panels, the building will also have "a green roof system" to help "minimise the visual impact of the building, provide better control of surface water and prevent solar heat gain".

See the full application here.