A PROPOSAL to build a £300m giant rail freight terminal on Green Belt land outside Radlett has moved a step closer after a formal planning application was submitted.

HelioSlough, the property development company behind the project, have submitted detailed plans to St Albans District Council for the construction of the rail freight site on the former Radlett aerodrome, in North Orbital Road.

The council will now have 16 weeks to consider the application which would be capable of handling 12 freight trains both in and out every 24 hours, as well as 1,500 lorries a day.

The controversial proposal will total 3.5m square feet, the equivalent of almost 300 football pitches and will include 1,665 car parking spaces and 617 spaces for lorries.

The development includes four 20-metre high warehouses to be built on the old aerodrome, by the A414 and close to the M25 and will provide 3,000 jobs once built.

There will also be the construction of a new road linking the A414 with the A5183 south of Radlett.

The proposal comes as the government look to reduce the amount of freight carried on the UK's roads and after the amount of goods carried by rail has grown by 50 per cent in the last five years.

For full story and local reaction see Friday's printed version of the Watford Observer.