St Stephens Parish Council

Rail Freight

Green Belt

I address you as a representative of the people of the Parish of St. Stephen in whose area the Old Radlett Aerodrome sits, the people of St. Albans and indeed the people of South West .

Enough land is being swallowed up for development - some of which is Green Belt Land without this area is being inflicted with a Monstrosity such as that Proposed by Helioslough. Green Belt land is precious and must be retained for this and future generation to enjoy.

There appears to be no consistency in the way that the Minister, Eric Pickles deals with Green Belt in his own area and this piece of Green Belt. The establishment of this development at this location has no benefit to the people of the area whatsoever – in fact it will have a detrimental affect. Not only has he failed to appreciate that there are other areas crying out for such a development and although he promised a genuine comparison he has failed to deliver.

Traffic

Road

I will not burden you with statistics - they have already been well rehearsed but it is essential that I bring to your notice some very important facts.

The prospect of 3,000 Lorries entering and leaving the proposed site is almost impossible to contemplate. It equates to just over 2 every minute of the day and night, even being generous that means 1,500 in and 1,500 out. Then on top of that you have the staff and service vehicles

The roads in and around St.Albans are very congested as it is and they just cannot take any more. I am certain that you are aware that particularly at peak times the is log-jammed and if anything happens on the M25 or M1 then the delays and chaos is multiplied. With statistic we can make almost anything appear possible but don’t rely on them consider the views of the people that use the road. The local roads through Park Street, and Chiswell Green will then become rat-runs for impatient lorry drivers and other road users who are not prepared to wait in a traffic jam.

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Rail

The main line from Bedford to Brighton via St. Albans is an already congested line and just cannot take any more traffic. The noise from the freight trains entering and leaving the site will be horrendous and as the site sits very close to the residential areas of Park Street, Frogmore and Colney Street, sleep deprivation will inevitably follow.

Many of the residents of the three villages mentioned above and in St.Albans are commuters the delays to their journeys will be unbearable.

Impact

I do not know of anyone (other than those involved in the development) who agree with the development.

The site is described as the Old Radlett Aerodrome but it is some 3 miles from Radlett and sits within the Parish of St. Stephen which includes Park Street, Frogmore and Colney Street.

St. Stephen Parish

What effect will that have upon the residents of those areas; they will look out of their back windows and see massive slate grey Warehouses looming over them – One of them bigger than the Terminal 5 Building at Heathrow. I ask you to consider what affect that will have on the lives of these people. During the construction stage the noise, dust and light pollution will also have a deleterious impact upon their lives. Park Street will become a landlocked village surrounded by heavy traffic and Frogmore and Colney Street will suffer similarly.

St. Albans City I don’t need to tell you that the City of St. Albans a historic City known world wide and has to be preserved as such We can’t afford to destroy that ancient heritage which has existed for 2,000 years. The future cannot be a St. Albans whose principle heritage is big Grey Warehouses as opposed to the beautiful buildings including the Cathedral and Abbey Church of St. Alban for which it is famous.

The detrimental effects will be felt in Harpenden, , Radlett, London Colney and beyond.

Value

So what value do we put on the proposed development? Are we placing a high financial value on the on this development? I don’t argue that the

2 prospect of a large sum of money paid into the County Councils coffers is very attractive - especially as you have to make £143m cuts over the next 4 years but for what and by whom. Really this is to satisfy the commercial greed of the developers and financiers. All those involved in the development live nowhere near the proposed site, will not have to travel along the congested roads in and around St. Albans and will no more benefit from the development than the local people – except financially

I ask you to look at the other SRFI’s particularly the one at Daventry, it is not working at full capacity the local council have had to build additional lay-bys to accommodate Lorries waiting to enter the site. I ask you also to look at the benefits derived from such a development – there are none at this location but there are other sites which would derive enormous benefit and Mr Pickles has not considered those. There are several other uses for this land and I must ask you to look at those.

Lives and Living

I don’t need to tell you that the task you have is perhaps not easy unless you say ‘We as an elected County Council will take notice of what the electors say, we will not destroy the environment of St. Albans we will not make road and rail journeys more difficult we will preserve our heritage.

We will not sell to Helioslough for the development of an SRFI.

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