The fight against the proposed rail freight terminal at the former Radlett airfield is set to continue.
Campaigners have now lodged an appeal into a High Court decision to reject their claim that the sale of the land to developers was unlawful.
Save St Albans: Fight the Freight claim the land should not have been sold by Hertfordshire County Council (HCC) because it was designated as open space that cannot be developed. Mrs Justice Leiven made her decision based on evidence from a local farmer who said he had a tenancy agreement since 2017 that showed the land was not open space.
Campaigners say they had no time to challenge this evidence and that it ignored a number of factors.
District councillor Terrie Smith, one of the campaign leaders, said: “We accept that the farmer has had a tenancy agreement since 2017 but up until then, he had a rolling three-month grazing licence, which is consistent with the land being designated open space. It’s not clear who knew about the change, whether it was publicised or indeed whether it was legal. It seems like much of HCC policy, it was based on assumption that the land was not designated open space even though neither we nor Herts can find any documentation to show this was the case.”
Councillor Nuala Webb, one of the leaders of Save St Albans: Fight the Freight, said: “The judge accepted that when HCC agreed to buy the land for £1 in the mid-1980s, the intention was to preserve it as open space and prevent development.
“The land was used for mineral extraction by Redland Aggregates over 15 years and should have been restored by Redland when that finished, but that work was never completed. We have copies of correspondence from former senior council officials at the time asking when the land was going to be opened to the public as originally intended.
“Herts should have enforced this but didn’t. But that failure does not mean the land was not designated open space.”
Save St Albans: Fight the Freight have now lodged their appeal and have two weeks to finalise their legal argument.
A spokesperson for HCC said: “The High Court has already ruled on this matter, and we are disappointed that taxpayers will be burdened with additional costs as we yet again defend our lawful sale.”
Photo Credit: David Castor
Well done, we have to fight this monstrocity!