A campaign group fighting against the construction of a rail freight terminal on Green Belt land has claimed that Hertfordshire County Council has blocked a petition from its website.
The petition was created by 'Save St Albans: Fight the Freight' to urge the local authority to disclose legal advice.
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According to the campaign group, the council would relay on this legal advice to justify any sale of land to rail freight developers SEGRO.
Hertfordshire County Council say that its constitution prevents the submission of a second petition to its website in relation to the same council decision within six months.
However, 'Save St Albans: Fight the Freight' argue that the two petitions are different requests, at different points in the decision-making process.
The petition currently featured on Hertfordshire County Council's website has finished, and requests a full public consultation take place prior to any sale of the former Radlett Airfield site.
A decision was taken in December to sell the land to SEGRO, but the sale has yet to be made.
The campaign group's current petition, featured on Change.org, gathered 2,000 signatures in four days.
Petition organiser Terrie Smith said: "If this petition had been published on the county council's petition website, then it would now have achieved the required number of signatures to present the petition to full council for a discussion and debate."
A spokesperson for Hertfordshire County Council told The Herts Advertiser: "As one of the parties to the sale of land in Radlett to SEGRO the county council has already considered representations from community groups, residents, and elected representatives.
"These representations included a petition opposing the sale of the land which was considered at the time the decision was taken.
“After consideration, and in light of the planning permission already granted in 2014, Cabinet agreed to proceed with the sale of the land.
"The disposal of this site will lead to the creation of a new country park for the benefit of residents, a by-pass for Park Street, create much needed employment and will reduce the carbon footprint of transporting freight across the nation.”
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