High Speed Rail 2 (HS2 Ltd), the company established by the Department for Transport (DFT) to develop and promote the new rail and infrastructure scheme, said that that it will establish community and planning forums and an environment forum.
"The community forums would enable local participation, facilitating on-going discussions and building relationships, allowing us to identify local priorities and explore opportunities for further mitigation and local community benefits," said HS2.
"The planning forums would be intended to facilitate discussion of design development, planning issues, environmental impacts and mitigation principles and would involve officers from local authorities and other transport and planning bodies," it said.
"The environment forum would involve national representatives of environmental consultees and government departments. This group would assist the development of environmental policy for the next stage of development of HS2," it said.
The Government announced earlier this month that it would back the controversial rail and infrastructure project. Transport Secretary Justine Greening said that the Government would proceed with plans to build a high speed line between London and the West Midlands that would then continue on to Manchester and Leeds.
A hybrid bill on HS2 is expected by October 2013 following publication of the Environmental Impact Assessment for public consultation.
