I was interested and irritated in equal measure with the visit of Huw Merriman MP, Minister of State for Rail and HS2.

Cheshire East Council welcomed the minister to Crewe and used the opportunity to discuss regeneration ambitions for the area.

According to the council, the visit ‘follows on from the package of commitments the council secured from HS2 Ltd and the Government earlier this year’.

The aim, apparently, is to provide ‘a better outcome for Cheshire East and its communities from the arrival of High Speed Rail’.

Merriman was given a tour of Crewe station where some of the key concerns and opportunities with the current facilities on offer were highlighted.

This includes the need for a new passenger transfer deck to make it easier for people, including those who are disabled, to access platforms and to change between trains at Crewe.

So let’s get this right. Are we meant to believe there are still some people out there who think HS2 is a good idea?

It’s not. It’s a monumentally expensive white elephant and it’s getting more expensive by the day. They can’t even sort out the flagship Euston terminus, let alone the rest of the project.

According to theguardian.com, the estimated £4.8bn cost of HS2’s endangered Euston terminus could balloon further unless the government becomes ‘clear what it is trying to achieve’ – and when has this government actually achieved anything worthwhile?

In a highly critical report, MPs on the public accounts committee said the Department for Transport (DfT) was yet to ‘establish the design and expectations for the station’ against what it was willing to spend, despite spending more than eight years planning and designing the London terminus.

The transport secretary, Mark Harper, paused construction of the Euston site along with other parts of HS2 in March this year as the estimates surged. Yet the committee found the government did not know how much additional cost the decision would entail.

The committee also questioned the accuracy of ministers’ six-monthly updates to parliament.

It noted that the potential overspend at Euston was put at £400m in October 2020, a sum not altered in subsequent updates through to October 2022 – despite proving less than 20 per cent of the figure the National Audit Office reported five months later in March.

The committee called on the DfT to provide greater transparency in its calculations.

There’s a surprise, the government playing fast and loose with its accounting. Colour me shocked.

So while Cheshire East Council is giving itself high fives and, MPs said questions remained about how the government would manage high levels of inflation across HS2, after its inquiry was told of 30-40 per cent swings in the cost of raw materials.

The committee’s chair, Meg Hillier, was scathing about the Euston project but her words could equally apply to everything else to do with HS2.

She said: “The HS2 Euston project is floundering. This is a multibillion-pound scheme which has already caused major disruption to the local community put on pause.

“The pause, ostensibly to save money, is not cost free. The government must now be clear what it is trying to achieve with this new station, and how it will benefit the public.”

It’s time for the government to admit defeat, call a permanent halt to the entire HS2 debacle and consign it to the pages of the history books under the section entitled ‘a monumental waste of public money’.

On another topic, I want to give a big round of applause to police in Knutsford who are continuing to target selfish drivers for parking on pavements.

Drivers blocking Lilac Avenue, Tabley Grove and Acacia Avenue in Knutsford were issued with fixed penalty notices for parking on the pavement, forcing pedestrians to walk in the road.

Regular readers of this column will be aware that selfish drivers who cause an obstruction for pedestrians is one of my pet hates.

I can only echo what this Cheshire Police spokesman said: “Fixed penalty notices have been issued for parking on the pavements and causing unnecessary obstruction to pedestrians, wheelchairs and prams.

“Please be considerate when parking your vehicle.”

One of the cars that received a fixed penalty notice was an Audi, which fits in nicely with the ‘and finally’ below.

And finally, when I was browsing the Guardian’s website last weekend two stories caught my eye.

In at No5 on the list of ‘most read’ stories was the tale of the Audi driver clocked doing double the speed limit who was hit with £1,000 court bill.

And at No6 on the same list was ‘Audi driver hit with £300 fine for jumping red light’.

What is it about Audi drivers? Do they think they are special and the laws don’t apply to them?