COUNCILLORS will continue to consider plans for housing at the former Radlett Aerodrome site – despite a possible legal challenge.

The proposals for the new Park Street Garden Village – with 2,300 homes on the site of the disused Radlett Aerodrome – are contained in the council’s new ‘working’ draft of the Local Plan.

But the site – which is owned by Hertfordshire County Council – has already been earmarked by developers for a controversial Strategic Rail Freight Interchange.

St Albans District Council has been warned that if they push ahead with the Park Street proposals they could face a legal challenge.

But at a meeting of the council’s Planning Policy Committee on Tuesday, chair Mary Maynard told councillors that the site would be considered and evaluated just like the others.

She said that ultimately it would be up to the land owners to decide the future of their own land.

“All we are doing with this Plan is putting in policies to control the use of the land and allocating land for different purposes,” said Cllr Maynard.

“Allocating land at this site for housing just means that it gives the owners of the site choice.

The location was one of 12 sites that have been included in the working draft Local Plan, following a ‘call for sites’ to developers and land owners earlier this year.

Landowners Hertfordshire County Council have indicated that the land could be made available for a Garden Village, as an alternative to the Strategic Rail Freight Interchange.

Councillors had been expected to consider the ‘strategic site selection evaluation outcomes’ of the potential new housing sites and their inclusion in the draft Local Plan on Tuesday, but deferred this until Monday.