Helioslough sets out railfreight stall to Mayor of London
5th July 2007
Today Anne Main attended the evidence session for the London Plan's railfreight strategy with Chris and Eve Brown from STRiFE.
Today Anne Main, Conservative MP for St Albans, attended the evidence session for the London Plan's railfreight strategy with Chris and Eve Brown from STRiFE.
Representatives from Helioslough, the Campaign to Protect Rural England, Transport for London (TfL), the Government Office for London, Hertfordshire County Council and the East of England Regional Assembly (EERA) and other organisations such as Bexley Borough and Friends of the Earth met in Greater London Assembly Building to debate the future railfreight in London.
Anne said:
"I was gratified to hear the submissions from Hertfordshire County Council, EERA, CPRE and indeed Bexley Borough Council, which robustly urged the Mayor to ensure no dilution of greenbelt policy in favour of railfreight interchanges in the Green Belt.
However, Helioslough, the architects of the Radlett proposal, and TfL, selectively set out their stall in an attempt to persuade the Mayor in favour of developments outside the London area in the green belt. I was amazed to hear Keith Rodwell of Helioslough argue that they try to marry up sites with employees by saying that "we have to find sites where people can get to and from their place of work easily" when clearly the Radlett proposal will need large numbers of commuting workers. Mr Rodwell also dismissed the green belt argument of Mr Kersey, from CPRE, as "disingenuous".
TfL persisted in arguing for additional "business" for the rail industry and greater access to other markets. It seemed that the business case was more prominent than any environmental case. However, Mr Nichols from Bexley Borough quoted some damning statistics which indicated that only 6% of activity at Daventry Rail Freight Terminal was rail-accessed, with the remaining 94% of traffic using lorries and his figures were not successfully argued away.
I will be liaising with Bexley Borough Council to see if there is anything we can learn to add to our argument to defeat this proposal"
Photo: Anne with Chris and Eve Brown from STRiFE in the London Assembly Chambers"
