A KEY plank of the revived project for a major rail-connected goods depot on Green Belt land near Park Street is fatally flawed, according to countryside campaigners.

After analysing developer Helioslough's alternative sites assessment, which purports to show there is nowhere else in the Home Counties north-west of London to build a large freight yard, the pressure group CPRE Hertfordshire have described it as a miserable failure.

Honorary director Kevin FitzGerald said: “ There are other potential sites, some of which are already in the planning process, that would score more highly than the Radlett site if the criteria were applied differently.

“ Rather than accept that these other sites are genuine competitors to their own proposal, Helioslough are suggesting that they could be developed as complementary sites to Radlett. On that basis, we could end up with several rail freight interchanges.

“The Radlett site suffers from a number of operational disadvantages that Helioslough have tried to play down. It is too constricted by the M25 and the A414 to allow straightforward rail access, the Midland main line is not the most strategic route nationally, and its loading gauge is not big enough to accommodate modern European containers.”

Helioslough failed to force their initial planning application to develop a former airfield between Park Street and London Colney largely because their original sites assessment was inadequate.

Its renewed application, including a fresh sites assessment, will come before a district council planning committee on Monday, July 20, although another refusal is likely to lead to a second costly public inquiry.