17 Mar 2023
Shocking new revelations uncovered by St Albans MP Daisy Cooper suggest a lack of action by Herts county council to oppose the controversial rail freight depot.
It is feared the proposal, for Radlett Airfield near Park Street, will not only devastate Green Belt land, but will choke local roads with thousands more lorries.
Part of the case against the plan hinges on whether the terminal is still considered viable or necessary. Two legal opinions have claimed that HCC could refuse to sell the land if there was a “change in circumstances”.
Now Daisy Cooper has used a parliamentary process to obtain fresh arguments from the government about the land sale, revealing HCC has not contacted the Department of Transport about the scheme.
She asked whether the Ministry for Transport had had any correspondence with HCC regarding the county’s rail freight requirements, only for Transport Minister Huw Merriman to confirm that “there have been no recent direct discussions with, or correspondence received from, Hertfordshire County Council in relation to changes to rail freight capacity requirements”.
Daisy said: “We now know that HCC hasn’t even bothered to contact the government to explore this way to stop the rail freight plans. For me, this shows that – for all their talk about being ‘reluctant sellers’, they’re really not interested in stopping it at all.
“It simply defies belief that the county council can claim there haven’t been any significant changes in circumstance, when it seems it hasn’t even bothered to look for any.
“Any number of issues – such as the predicted capacity on the A414, the creation of new rail freight terminals since the 2014 decision, capacity and routes for rail freight, and potential changes to Green Belt protections – would have been worth exploring.
“Any landowner not wanting to sell its land would have bent over backwards to look into this.
“It’s time for HCC to take stock, admit they’ve made an atrocious mess of this process, and go to work to make sure every possible avenue has been explored to stop this monstrous development.”
Cllr Nuala Webb from the Save St Albans: Fight the Freight campaign said: “This is scandalous behaviour from Herts county council. It’s worse than negligence. They have failed in their duty to the people they’re supposed to represent to investigate changes over the last nine years that would show that this ludicrous and unnecessary terminal is no longer needed.
“Instead they seem hell bent on selling valuable Green Belt for around 10% of its market value. It seems they were also hell bent on pushing the sale through this month. But now this latest evidence has been exposed they surely have no alternative but to stop negotiations, halt the sale and carry out a full and proper review.”
A spokesperson for HCC said: “As part of the sale process, the county council has sought and received external updated opinion from Counsel. We have made this advice public for review by any interested parties. Due to commercial sensitivity, a small section has been redacted but the premise remains that following the approval by the Secretary of State for a Strategic Rail Freight Interchange on this site we are obligated to sell our land interest if a number of conditions are met.”
