12 Jun 2023
A petition of more than 8,500 names has been presented to County Hall calling on councillors to stop the sale of the former Radlett airfield for a rail freight terminal – but HCC has already decided to ignore it.
Quentin Baker, director of law and governance, was the man who blocked the petition on HCC’s website back in January, forcing campaigners from Save St Albans: Stop the Freight to set it up on change.org in order that residents might have their say.
The county council refused to consider it before last month’s annual meeting as Mr Baker said their constitution prevented HCC examining two petitions on the same issue within a six month period – but then HCC steamrolled through changes to the rules so it cannot be considered.
At HCC’s AGM on May 23, the council voted to accept a number of changes to its constitution, including an amendment of the petitions scheme so it will no longer accept petitions raised on external websites.
One of the campaign leaders Cllr Nuala Webb said: “All the time they have tried to silence us. Just another anti-democratic move by HCC which is hellbent on pushing this through, against the wishes and to the detriment of a very large number of their residents.”
In the meantime, the Fight the Freight group are continuing talks with lawyers so that everything is in place to launch a Judicial Review should the sale be completed.
Terrie Smith, one of the leaders of the Save St Albans: Fight the Freight campaign: “ If Herts county council is really a reluctant seller then councillors and officers should be doing everything in their powers to prevent this. Legal advice has consistently said they don’t have to sell if they can show there have been significant changes since planning was approved nine years ago. They have the evidence. The petition shows people don’t want this freight terminal and there is still time to listen to the strength of feeling around St Albans, London Colney and surrounding areas and stop this sale.”
There is also growing anger about the role Lord and Lady Verulam have played in the process, after a swathe of the Gorhambury Estate faces being sold to developers Segro alongside other land owned by Tarmac and HCC.
They previously allowed the company to dig trenches on land at Hedges Farm and pour concrete into them as part of an 11th-hour bid to extend planning permission that was due to end.
This counted as implementation of the planning permission granted to Segro by former Secretary of State Eric Pickles in 2014.
Planning permission only lasts five years if work is not started in some fashion, so without this action it would have lapsed in 2019. It couldn’t have been done on HCC land because of a covenant banning any form of building work on the Radlett airfield site until July 2021 – which would have been too late for Segro and planning permission would have expired.
Because Lord and Lady Verulam allowed this to happen, the planning permission for the SRFI is now deemed permanent and the site cannot be used for anything else unless Segro gives up their planning permission.
Cllr Webb added: “ While Lord Verulam’s family in the past is remembered for helping to save St Albans Cathedral, he will be remembered for betraying the city and its residents. Lord and Lady Verulam wouldn’t want a 1,000 acre freight terminal on the Gorhambury Estate so we can’t understand why they feel it’s acceptable to allow one to ruin the lives of their neighbours.”
The St Albans Times offered Lord and Lady Verulam an opportunity to have their say on the proposed sale, but to date we have received no response to our proposal.
A demonstration to draw attention to the Verulams’ role in the potential sale of this Green Belt land will be taking place outside the Gorhambury Estate this Saturday, June 17, at 1.30pm.
