On March 13th and 14th at The Noke Hotel in Chiswell Green, HelioSlough held their public consultation relating to their proposed planning application for a Strategic Rail Freight Interchange (SRFI) on the site of the former Radlett Aerodrome at Park Street.

As an applicant for a major development proposal, HelioSlough are obliged to demonstrate to the Local Planning Authority that they have undertaken appropriate public consultation prior to submitting their planning application.

The consultation itself was well attended by members of the public, though many commented that the location selected was inconvenient and inaccessible by public transport.  STRiFE estimate that in excess of 800 people passed through over the course of the two days.

What did we learn from this consultation exercise?

- Helioslough were expecting to submit their new application by the end of March.  Here we are at the beginning of April and no application yet.  We suspect it may come the Thursday before Easter.
 
- The scheme itself is to be physically identical to the previous one in all details – the size of the warehouses, the access arrangements, the rail link, even the so-called “Country Park”.
 
- The only new item within the application is to be a revised Alternative Sites Assessment (ASA).  This was where the previous application fell down at the Public Inquiry.
 
- The new ASA is clearly intended to show that the site of the former Radlett Aerodrome is the best available to fulfil the need for a SRFI.

The next steps we see are:

- Clearly, we await receipt of the planning application itself so we can examine the new ASA and ensure that, as the developer maintained at the consultation, nothing else has indeed changed with the scheme.

- The Local Planning Authority, depending upon the exact nature of the application, may choose to apply part of planning legislation that would allow them to refuse to register this new application.  Such a move would most likely be challenged by the developer and its validity would be determined in court.  If the court were to uphold the Local Planning Authority’s position, then no new application for such a scheme would be allowed until October 2010, being 2 years following the initial refusal by the Secretary of State.

- Once the application is registered, there will be a 16 week period until the Local Planning Authority must determine the application, either granting or refusing consent for the scheme.
 
- If the latter, then it is likely that the developer will seek a further appeal and ultimately a further Public Inquiry will follow.
 
- As and when the planning application is submitted, we will be in touch once more.

Clearly, STRiFE now have to redouble their efforts and we will be working hard on lobbying, PR and building our new case against the latest application.  It may be that this next battle is to be fought over quite narrow and technical grounds.  In this case, although it enables us to be more focused, it places greater need on the requirement for further professional assistance.  For this, we obviously rely entirely on financial support from within the local community so please do help as much you can and do tell those who think that this proposal had disappeared that it is back.

Unsurprisingly, the latest publicity for the scheme has seen a resurgence of support for STRiFE.  As ever, we are indebted to our supporters who provide us with the encouragement and financial wherewithal to continue with our campaign.

Many thanks for your continued support.

STRiFE
Strife Ltd. is registered in England.  Company Number:  5961074.Address: PO Box 932, St Albans AL1 9GG”