18 Aug 2023
Sparrowhawks and red kites soar through the silent skies; meadow pipets, magpies, wrens and robins are frequent visitors to imposing oak trees; and come twilight you can hear the barking of foxes and catch a glimpse of hedgehogs snuffling in local gardens.
At night you don’t hear anything at all.
The fields at the bottom of gardens in Hampden Place, Park Street, have been a haven for wildlife as long as anyone can remember. Certainly there are those neighbours who have lived there for 20 years or more who have always enjoyed the peace and tranquility which surrounds their homes.
But now the diggers have moved in, cranes stand like sentinels on the horizon, and the sound of machinery pierces the summer morning calm.
This, then, is the harbinger of the rail freight depot. For years its spectre has haunted the lives of those people living near the former Radlett Aerodrome, but now, finally, it has been made flesh. Workmen in high-vis jackets herald the start of construction on an unwanted, unnecessary blight on the lives of every man, woman and child living in St Albans.
This is not a development of much-needed affordable housing, nor is it a new school or hospital. It is instead a 1,000-acre industrial complex, with huge storage warehouses and an endless queue of massive juggernauts bringing noise, pollution and traffic chaos to the surrounding area.
Those residents of Hampden Place who face having their neighbouring fields concreted over by this monstrosity are watching with horror as this prime arable land is torn apart by excavators. For them, it really is a case of ‘not in my back yard’, and the often-derogatory adage NIMBY is one they should arguably adopt as a nom de guerre.
Susie Taylor has spent 23 years transforming her garden into a mecca for local fauna, but now she feels nothing but heartbreak at the sight of the work being carried out on the nearby Green Belt site.
The fieldbirds will vanish, the vista will be irrevocably destroyed, and her quiet corner of this unassuming cul-de-sac will be just one of dozens of properties spoiled forever by the impact of the rail freight interchange.
“It’s so peaceful here,” she said. “The majority of us have lived here for over 20 years, and I think that says something. We’ve all been really happy here. It’s been so quiet you know, it’s a nice place to live. It’s just absolutely atrocious what’s going on.”
Neighbour Russell Stobbard agreed: “I sit out in my garden whenever I have the opportunity. But now, what can you do? They’re going to move the bund and put a boundary up. The trees are all going unless we can get them protected.”
The bund is a manmade earth barrier designed to shield residents from the noise of the M25, but whether it will be maintained following the construction of the rail freight interchange is unknown.
Russell continued: “The thing is, it’s not so much the construction or the 24-hour operation, that’s bad enough, but they’re relying on the A414, and you know how often the 414 gets clogged up. And if that gets clogged up, what are they going to do? Suspend operations? They’re going to come this way.
“But the road {Watling Street, the B5183] just isn’t suitable. It’s literally a head scratcher. Any roundabout would need to be massive for a lorry to get around it but even if you get onto the road, it is not suitable as a secondary road if the A414 is blocked.”
Susie pointed across the fields to where construction vehicles were digging up the soil: “That’s where the access road is going to be. They’re going to take it past these poor houses, but there’s been no communication, nothing, no, sod the lot of us.
“Lord and Lady Verulam did it for us. Planning permission was going to expire in November 2019 but then Lord and Lady Verulam allowed Segro onto their land to dig a concrete trench which meant that building work had started. If they think this is going to be good for St Albans, they can have these warehouses on the Gorhambury Estate then!”
The Verulams have never explained why they allowed this to happen, or why they sold part of their estate to Segro for the rail freight interchange.
Susie says the biggest problem is apathy: “I was speaking to someone in How Wood about it the other day and she said, ‘But it’s over in Radlett’… This where it’s been so confusing because I don’t know why they called it Radlett Aerodrome because it’s never been in Radlett. It’s definitely not Radlett. It’s not even on the boundaries of Radlett. I don’t get it. It’s Park Street.”
Neighbour Kieran Smith said he is frustrated with the lack of information forthcoming from Segro, SADC or any other body.
“Nobody says anything, and I do really mean nobody. Nobody has said what the plans actually are, so we sit here, two big cranes out, they’re digging now, they’re digging trenches, they’ve been surveying this side of the bund, so we’ve no idea, you know, what are they up to? What are they doing? What are the plans?
“We’ve not had any communication prior to or after the sale. The best we ever had was in 2014 when we were given the plans for a rail freight depot, which meant infrastructure going around, all sorts of things happening.
“I can’t say I liked it, but at least we knew what it was. I knew there was going to be a road at the back of there coming off the M25 and all the other bits that they were putting in and what they were doing. Now we’ve absolutely no idea what it’s even been sold for.”
Susie agreed: “Nobody knows anything. There’s been zero communication from anybody. We’ve been left in the lurch and we expect now to have construction machinery literally at the end of our gardens. We’ve had not a letter, not an email. Nothing. Nobody has had the decency to talk to us.”
Kieran added: “It’s just knowing, first of all, and then you can object. How can we object if we don’t know what’s happening?
“We wouldn’t have the foggiest idea as to who’s in charge of what or anything else. And I suppose that’s the irritation. There is a bigger view of this, of what’s been done and why and everything else, but I’ve no idea why they’ve sold it. Although I can guess they’ve sold it for money. But who benefits from this?
“Local councillors have all disappeared. They don’t want to know anymore. I’m not saying it was going to be nice for me as an individual, not whatsoever, but none of the infrastructure seems to be happening so you’re going to have a dire problem.
“The traffic out there is bigger than it ever was, even now. And that’s before they start. The industrial estates up here and down there have grown. And I don’t mean in foot size, I mean in how much they have going through there has grown. So the lorries that go past here now, they’re big already, and they’ll get even bigger.”
Tash Alexander moved into the road with her husband about two years ago: “[The rail freight depot] showed up on the [property] searches but was 10 or 15 years away at the time, and one of the main reasons we actually bought the house was the lovely view of the fields from our garden.
“We’re in the garden a lot so it’s really sad, there’s so much wildlife around here which will be wiped out. The sheep used to come up to the fence and scratch their backs on the trees here. It’s such a shame. It’s also going to drop house prices around here. It knocks about £50K off the value.”
Her sister-in-law Emma Posner lives next door: “We moved in here in December 2019 and nothing came up in the searches for us.
“I wasn’t sure if it was going to affect me and if I would hear it but now I’m worried about all the dirt and pollution coming into my house. It’s frustrating that all I can hear are diggers.”
We contacted Segro, the company behind the rail freight scheme, to find out what was happening on the site now construction work was apparently underway.
The spokesperson would not provide up-to-date plans, but revealed: “We have been undertaking some geotechnical works and archaeological excavations on the Radlett Aerodrome site since May. Now the site has been acquired, we will be undertaking further preparatory works over the next year, including surveys, archaeology and ecology mitigation.
“This work is in line with the planning consent and will inform our detailed construction plans. It will involve various teams of people and the use of a range of machines.
“We are also temporarily opening up the old entrance to the site on the A414 to bring in the machinery and we will be installing hoarding around the site for safety and security reasons. The main construction works will start in summer 2024.”
