05 Jun 2026
Beleagured residents of Park Street and Frogmore are urging St Albans MP Daisy Cooper to take urgent action to tackle the billowing clouds of dust from the nearby rail freight development.
During the recent heatwave, most residents found themselves sealed indoors — windows shut against constant clay dust and structural noise from the SEGRO site.
Dust is fast becoming a public health concern, visibly settling on cars, windows, garden furniture and the exterior of homes across Frogmore and Park Street — not just at the site boundary but right through both villages. This is no longer a localised issue affecting a few properties. It is widespread, and it is getting worse.
The Construction Environmental Management Plan attached to planning permission 5/2009/0708 for the development requires active dust suppression, including water bowser use and damping down. But what residents are documenting is the opposite.
They say earthworks are repeatedly proceeding with no bowser in use and no effective dampening of the working face. On one occasion residents say they observed a single bowser on site, stationary and unused, while heavy machinery turned over dry clay metres from residential gardens.
Arguably, if this much dust is settling visibly on cars and buildings, then the same dust is in the air, and local residents are breathing it in.
Multiple households are now reporting headaches, sore throats, sore eyes, sinus issues and nausea — symptoms consistent with exposure to construction dust and respirable particulates. This is affecting families with children, elderly residents, and people with existing respiratory conditions.
A spokesperson for action group the Impacted Residents of Frogmore and Park Street said: “We cannot say with certainty what is in that dust. SEGRO say it is topsoil. But this is a former aircraft factory site with documented buried waste material from its industrial past.
“Nobody outside SEGRO and their contractor knows exactly what is being disturbed or what is becoming airborne. Residents are being asked to take SEGRO’s word for it while breathing the consequences. That uncertainty is precisely the reason precaution should be the default — not the exception.
“What we do know is that this is preventable. Continuous water suppression of working faces, properly used bowsers and damping of haul roads would substantially reduce it. SEGRO are not doing this consistently. The honest reading is that adequate dust suppression costs money, and SEGRO are choosing to save those pennies at the expense of the air local residents are breathing.
“A small operational saving for a FTSE-listed company, versus the health, comfort and quality of life of families, children and elderly residents in your constituency. To do nothing in the face of that choice would suggest the welfare of the elderly and the children in this community matters less than SEGRO’s operational convenience.
“This is not just a matter of dust on cars. It is loss of amenity in the truest sense — people unable to open windows in the heat, unable to use their gardens, unable to hang washing out, unable to enjoy the homes they have worked their whole lives to own. That loss is being suffered across both villages, not at one or two properties on the boundary.”
The group is now urging the MP to do help them resolve the issue: “We are not asking for the development to be stopped. We accept it is happening. We are asking, as your constituents, for the basic dignity of breathing clean air in our own homes and gardens while it happens, and for the law and the planning conditions attached to this consent to be properly enforced. ”Specifically that SEGRO be required to implement full and continuous dust suppression across the entirety of the site, regardless of cost, for as long as earthworks continue.
“That independent air quality monitoring be carried out at the residential boundary — not by SEGRO’s own contractor, but by an independent body — with results published.
“That SEGRO confirm publicly what is in the material being disturbed, supported by independent testing rather than their own assurances.
“That St Albans City and District Council be pressed to actively enforce the planning conditions attached to permission 5/2009/0708, including the CEMP and Dust Management Plan, rather than deferring to the developer’s self-reporting.”
A spokesperson for SEGRO responded: “We recognise the concerns raised by local residents and take them seriously. Construction at this scale can generate dust, particularly during dry and windy conditions, but we have robust controls and continuous monitoring in place to minimise any impact beyond the site. Data collected for particulate matter most relevant to health (PM10 and PM2.5) remains within UK and World Health Organization guidelines.
“We are working closely with STRABAG UK and St Albans district council environmental compliance team to review current activities and strengthen mitigation where needed. This includes increased damping down, closer supervision of earthworks and the targeted use of dust suppression equipment across the site. Work will continue to be adjusted in response to site conditions and monitoring data.
“STRABAG UK has monitoring in place at the site boundary and will continue to review monitoring arrangements with the council, including whether any additional independent assurance is appropriate, to ensure transparency and maintain confidence in the data.
In relation to site materials, extensive ground investigations have been undertaken and further work with the SADC environmental compliance team is ongoing to agree the approach for any future phases involving landfill material. Appropriate controls and monitoring will be in place before these works begin.
“We remain committed to operating responsibly, responding quickly to concerns and maintaining open dialogue with local residents and stakeholders.”
Meanwhile, there was further upset in the Frogmore community when residents noticed contractors working near the artificial bund at the site, apparently in breach of 50m buffer zones imposed to protect nesting skylarks.
Time-stamped photographic and video evidence shows tracked STRABAG machinery operating directly at the foot of the bund.
As part of the ongoing construction of the strategic rail freight interchange, SEGRO wants to remove the 1,676m embankment in order to build a new access road.
Skylarks, which use the bund as an active breeding site, are a protected species of significant conservation concern, and as such their habitats should not be disturbed or approached during breeding periods.
There are also concerns that the bund contains buried waste material from the site’s former industrial use as an aircraft factory, potentially including hazardous substances.
After a huge grass cutter was seen working near the bund, residents called Herts police Rural Operational Support Team, but instead of heading to Frogmore, they visited the main SRFI site entrance and came away satisfied nothing of concern had taken place.
The SEGRO spokesperson said: “A qualified ecologist was present during the visit and accompanied the officers on a tour of the relevant areas. The police have confirmed that ecological exclusions are in place and that the required precautions and protections are being properly adhered to. On that basis, works will continue in accordance with the advice we have received and the measures already established on site.
“As ever, ourselves and STRABAG remain committed to working responsibly and transparently and we will continue to follow the guidance of ecological specialists throughout the programme.”
After being directly contacted about these incidents by the St Albans Times, MP Daisy Cooper responded to residents’ concerns.
“The disruption residents in Frogmore, Napsbury and Park Street have been enduring from the rail freight terminal construction is sadly the very reason I and local campaigners fought so hard to oppose this development in the first place.
“When Conservative Secretary of State Eric Pickles overturned the two separate refusals by our local district council for this development, he all but sealed the fate for our local communities. Both for the inevitable disruption and pollution from the construction, and the subsequent operation in the decades to come. But it was, of course, the decision by the then Conservative county council that gave the green light for construction to commence almost 10 years on.”
“I stood with residents against the Conservative determination to press ahead with this freight terminal every step of the way. And I continue to relay their concerns now to the planning authority.
“Where residents suspect the developer is acting in a way that is in breach of the conditions set down by Eric Pickles in 2014, it’s essential that they report it to the planning enforcement team at St Albans district council.
“I know only too well, though, that the funding for planning services to local authorities from the fees levied on developers is simply not enough. That’s why I’ve campaigned for years to abolish the cap imposed on local councils, which is set to be finally lifted later this year.
“For this development, it is too late however. That’s why I’ve written to the chief executive at SADC today, to ask for assurances that every report made by residents is thoroughly investigated, and that the residents receive prompt updates and thorough explanations of what powers the council do have, and those they regrettably do not.
“I’m incredibly angry that we’re all living with the decision of a failed Conservative Minister made more than a decade ago, and that the law as it stands means we are stuck with the lax conditions he imposed.
“But residents can be assured I will be doing everything I can to support their local district councillors and our district planning team to hold SEGRO to account.”
