THE people of St Albans have been labelled environmental villains in a hard-hitting report which describes it as the second least green city in Britain.

A spokesman for conservation charity WWF, which commissioned the research, said: "The total footprint of the residents of St Albans equates to using just over three and a half planets."

The report calculated how many hectares of land and sea are needed to produce the food, consumer goods, and energy used by people in different cities.

Adding this to the land needed to absorb carbon dioxide and other gases driving global warming, an "ecological footprint", measured in hectares, is derived.

The population of St Albans needs more than 735,000 hectares of land - 6.31 hectares for every adult and child in the district, second only to Winchester.

With a soaring rate of car ownership and many residents driving miles to work, the city has the largest harmful impact from transport of any of the 60 districts put under the spotlight by researchers.

The average citizen of St Albans produces 55 per cent more greenhouse gas emissions from transport than the average Londoner.

Our appetites are also harming the planet, with only two places in Britain using more land for food production.

Other factors taken into account include energy used by housing, consumer items such as electrical goods, and the impact of business infrastructure like banks, restaurants and pubs.

Simon Grover of St Albans Green Party said: "St Albans is very wealthy, and that is why the footprint is bigger.

"There is plenty of money sloshing about, and some could be used to invest our environmental impact, both by individuals and local authorities.

"It is disgraceful that when we are so wealthy, our emissions are still rising.

"St Albans has been singled out as a place with a very high footprint - what are we going to do about it?

"We can all help by driving a bit less and recycling a bit more.

"At the county level, schools and hospitals could be heated in a sustainable way, and could have better transport policies for their staff.

"The district council own a lot of housing stock - all those buildings should be made carbon-neautral.

"Huge changes are needed.

"Everybody has a moral responsibility to push their representatives to do the right thing.

"If we don't live in a sustainable world, there won't be a world for us to live in."

District councillor Jack Pia said: "It is time we did something, and stopped messing around.

"We have to do things which might be unpopular, but we have to change the way we live."