19 Feb 2024
The campaign to stop a huge freight terminal being built on Green Belt in St Albans received a huge boost this week after a judge ruled that a legal challenge against the sale of the land will be decided in court later this year.
The campaign group Save St Albans: Fight the Freight had argued that there were serious flaws in the way Herts county council sold the former Radlett Aerodrome. After considering written evidence from Fight the Freight, HCC and the developers Segro, Mrs Justice Thornton has ruled that there is a case to answer. If the court rules in favour of the campaigners, the sale of the land will be overturned.
“This is a really important decision,” said one of the Fight the Freight campaign leaders Cllr Nuala Webb. “We have long argued that this area of Green Belt has been designated as permanent open space and that HCC had no right to sell it for development. The council ignored us and tried to argue that our case had no legal merit but Mrs Justice Thornton’s decision shows that they are wrong.
“We knew we had a strong moral argument about the way the sale was conducted. This decision shows we have a strong and valid legal argument as well.”
Herts CC sold 300 acres of Green Belt on the former Radlett airfield to freight company Segro in June. Fight the Freight claim the sale was flawed because a series of covenants show the land, bought by HCC in the mid-1980s for £1, should be permanent open space.
A judge will now hear verbal evidence from Save St Albans: Fight the Freight, HCC and Segro at a date sometime in the summer.
Segro have already started work on the site but have angered residents after twice reneging on a commitment to set up a consultation group to keep local people informed about the development.
“Both HCC and Segro have treated local people with total contempt, “said Cllr Webb. “Herts ignored all the evidence we gave them about why this sale was flawed. Segro have started work, even though the development could be blocked but won’t talk to the people who live nearby as they had promised to do.”
Save St Albans: Fight the Freight are stepping up their campaign and need to raise money to pay legal fees. “Mrs Justice Thornton ruled that our submission comes under the Aarhus convention which caps the amount of costs that could potentially be awarded against us should we lose. But we still need to raise £25,000 to fund this next and final challenge,“ said Cllr Webb.
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“A lot of people locally and at County Hall thought the fight was over and the freight terminal was unstoppable. But this ruling shows very clearly that it is not the case, and that this unwanted and unnecessary development can be blocked once and for all.”
A spokesman for Hertfordshire County Council said: “We continue to be confident that the sale of the land in Radlett to Segro for use as a strategic fright rail interchange was undertaken in accordance with all due processes.”
A spokesperson for Segro said: “The law in the UK has provisions for a judge to review the way public bodies make decisions and we are fully aware of the judicial review application challenging Hertfordshire County Council’s sale of land in Radlett to Segro. As an interested party, we have already provided initial representations to the judge, and now we have more clarity on the next steps we will be pleased to contribute further evidence to the hearing once scheduled. This does not change our current position and we will not be commenting comment further while the process is ongoing.”
