Mrs. Anne Main MP

Member of Parliament for St Albans

House of Commons

London, SW1A 0AA

12^th November 2008

Rail freight proposal to be resubmitted

I am sorry to have to write to you again so soon after my last letter. Frustratingly, Helioslough appears to be planning to resubmit its rail freight application for the Radlett site. In a letter to me dated yesterday, the company announced it had submitted an Environmental Statement Scoping Study to St Albans City and District Council and confirmed that a new planning application will follow in the New Year.

I am sure you will share my view that this is outrageous, particularly given that the proposal was only thrown out by the Secretary of State last month. Sadly, it now appears that we are set to become embroiled in another protracted and expensive fight to oppose this development.

This resubmission is a consequence of the developer’s failure to submit adequate plans in the first place, and I am particularly annoyed that this means we may now face a further costly fight. The financial cost of this is crippling St Albans’ council taxpayers and local residents. It’s hugely unfair that the developer can come back again so quickly with exactly the same application and we all have to pick up the bill.

In these difficult economic times, it appears the developer is trying to force through a plan in a community that it hopes is tired of fighting. It is clear that the developer is trying to get this plan approved before other, more appropriate, sites are found.

I have already spoken to STRIFE and we have agreed that we will continue to fight. As such I will be meeting with them later in the week to consider our future actions. We have defeated this once and we can do so again. They have my absolute support, and we need your support. It’s clearly going to be a long battle and I shall keep you informed.

With best wishes,

Anne Main MP

Conservative MP for St Albans