A Park Street councillor has branded plans for a new country park - to be created during the proposed construction of a rail freight terminal - as "hogwash".
District councillor Nuala Webb is involved in campaign group 'Save St Albans: Fight the Freight', whose petition against the development has now reached 4,100 signatures.
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The campaign group claim that the proposed development would bring "thousands of additional HGVs" to St Albans and the surrounding area, and that "the air quality in St Albans will become even more polluted".
Hertfordshire County Council claim that a new country park, a by-pass for Park Street and "much needed employment" would be brought by the freight terminal.
Cllr Nuala Webb told The Herts Advertiser: "This is hogwash.
"The council say the terminal would provide a by-pass for the village. It won’t.
"There will be a service road around the perimeter of the terminal, but it will not take existing traffic off the A5183 meaning heavy lorries will continue to thunder through the village.
"The council say the developers will create a new country park.
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"They are talking about the gravel pits – an area that already exists.
"The council say it will provide 'much needed jobs' St Albans has one per cent unemployment and local warehouses already struggle filling vacancies.
"The council say moving freight from road to rail will reduce the carbon footprint yet provide no data and no forecasts that can be scrutinised independently, nor do they account for the increased carbon footprint during five years of construction.
"There’s a further worry that the modification of the rail line will be too difficult and too expensive meaning the terminal will be a lorry-to-lorry site, no longer moving freight by rail but adding extra lorries and adding further to rather than reducing the carbon footprint.
"Either way, the carbon footprint for Park Street and surrounding areas will go up not down."
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