Mrs. Anne Main MP

Member of Parliament for St Albans

House of Commons

London, SW1A 0AA

5^th June 2007

Dear Constituent,

As promised I am keeping you up to date with the latest developments with the railfreight proposal and appeal. Things are moving swiftly now and you may like to know that a public meeting has been organised by STRiFE at the Alban Arena on Saturday 16th June, 10.00am until 11.30am.

The meeting will provide an opportunity for myself, STRiFE, and others, to update you on the current situation —as well as enable you to ask questions of the panel.

On a positive note, I was pleased to learn this week that the Government has approved the new London Gateway port and huge rail interchange at Shellhaven, Essex.

Shellhaven is on a former oil refinery, a ‘brownfield site’ and the East of England Regional Assembly identified this as a strategically acceptable location. I am convinced that this decision further undermines plans for a railfreight interchange in a village setting, on the green belt, with inadequate transport links and I will stress this point at any  appeal  hearing.

We are still waiting to be given a date for the appeal hearing, which is expected to be in the autumn. Nonetheless, I continue to oppose and make representations against these plans at every level. My next important meeting will be with the Managing Director of London Rail at Transport for London to continue to gather more evidence. As always, I will keep you updated with the latest developments as soon as they happen.

With best wishes,

Anne Main MP