22 May 2023
Campaigners fighting the controversial Radlett rail freight depot face a crucial week in their ongoing battle.
Members of Save St Albans: Fight the Freight will stage a protest outside County Hall in Hertford on Tuesday before Herts County Council holds its annual meeting.
The campaign hopes the council will finally consider the petition from change.org urging them to stop the sale of the Green Belt site – it now has more than 8,000 signatures.
A special meeting of the HCC oversight and scrutiny committee on Wednesday morning will consider whether the council fully explored objective information about the viability of the rail freight terminal on this site from reputable institutions and whether there have been significant changes since planning was approved that offer a good reason not to sell.
The agenda for that meeting says a number of questions around the process need to be answered and claims that an information pack provided to councillors was “opaque”. The committee will demand to know whether officers considered the impact of Brexit on trade flows, why the council are relying on a nine year old policy document about strategic rail freight terminals, why they are not seeking updated information from the ONS and government departments and whether the boom in e-commerce means the site would be used as lorry to lorry distribution centre.
The committee will also ask about arrangements for developers to fund the improvements to local infrastructure, especially with the escalation in costs for road maintenance since the Ukraine war.
Yesterday saw a public meeting highlighting the likely impact across Radlett, St Albans and surrounding villages should the terminal go ahead.
It also heard evidence supporting campaigners’ fears that changes since planning was approved nearly 10 years ago mean the Green Belt site is no longer viable as a rail freight terminal but would more likely be a lorry to lorry depot leading to more than 15,000 additional vehicles a day on local roads.
District Cllr Nuala Webb, one of the leaders of the campaign, said: “Residents were horrified at what this could mean for our communities, horrified at potential gridlock on our roads but also horrified at the way Herts CC has conducted itself throughout this process.
“The council has tried to block petitions, important information has been withheld from councillors, they have ignored legal advice and failed to investigate fully and objectively whether changes since planning was approved in 2014 mean the site is no longer viable as a rail freight terminal.
“They’re not getting full value for the land, they have no agreements that tie the developers into paying for infrastructure improvements to cope with the extra demands.
“People keep asking, why are Herts CC doing this?
“The Leader of the Council Richard Roberts has relied heavily on his officers to provide proper advice to his councillors. But it seems that advice has been partial and prejudiced so that only one option has been considered.”
The meeting, at the Vision Hall in Radlett, heard that Hertsmere MP and Deputy Prime Minister Oliver Dowden was pledging his “100% support” for the campaign to halt the sale. In an email to the meeting, apologising for his absence, Mr Dowden said he remained “steadfastedly opposed “ to the freight terminal and is continuing to lobby Herts CC urging them to scrap the sale.
