ANTI-rail freight campaigners are urging as many people as possible to sign up to two online petitions with the issue set to go to the wire.

Legal experts representing St Albans council are due to attend an oral hearing before a High Court judge tomorrow over a bid to get a Judicial Review into last December’s decision by Secretary of State for Communities, Eric Pickles, not to proceed with a conjoined inquiry into the Strategic Rail Freight Interchange (SRFI) in Park Street and a similar scheme for Colnbrook in Slough.

But last week Mr Pickles, who has already said he is ‘minded’ to approve the scheme for Radlett Airfield, gave developers Helioslough three months to reach an agreement with Herts county council, the owner of the former airfield on which the bulk of the SRFI would be built.

STRiFE – Stop The Rail Freight Exchange – has set up one petition on the government’s website in support of the pressure which is being put on ministers by St Albans MP Anne Main and another on the county council website.

They are uging people to sign the petitions to demonstrate that opposition to the Park Street scheme has not gone away and STRiFE will continue fighting “this monstrous proposal which would devastate this area of South West Hertfordshire”.

Last year the county council voted not to make any final decision about the sale of the land to Helioslough until all legal avenues taken by St Albans district council had been exhausted. No date has yet been set for the county council’s cabinet to consider its position.

County councillor for Park Street, Cllr Aislinn Lee, said this week: “Not only would it be premature but it would also be detrimental to any case the district council is bringing. There would be uproar if the county council did that.”

The petition on the government website can be found at http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/53636 and the other on the county council website is at https://consult.hertsdirect.org/petitions/petition?petition_id=133528

Anyone wishing to join STRiFE’s campaign against the SRFI should email web@strife.biz