A petition urging the county council not to sell green belt land earmarked for a rail freight terminal has received nearly 2,500 signatures in 48 hours.

The development at the former Radlett Airfield was approved in July last year and St Albans Council lost its latest appeal against the plans earlier this March.

Hertfordshire County Council owns around 300 acres of the land and said it would consider whether to sell it to developers Helioslough when all legal action has ended.

The freehold of the land was transferred to the county council in 2006 with a covenant limiting its use to "agricultural, open space and recreational purposes" for 21 years.

Organisers of the Don't Sell Green Belt to Helioslough petition said the county council's "prime duty” is to local residents.

The petition asks the council refuse to sell its site to the developers.

The county council said it has "deferred any decision on the possible disposal of its land" until after April 13 - the date by which St Albans District Council has to decide whether to challenge the latest High Court ruling.

The council first rejected the planning application put forward by Helioslough in 2006. That decision was upheld by the Government on appeal, and exactly the same result followed when Helioslough submitted a second, identical, application in 2009.

However, on that occasion, Helioslough took its case to the High Court and secured a 2011 ruling that the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government must reconsider the matter.

As a result, the matter was looked at again by a Government planning inspector. The Secretary of State then, despite opposition from the council and local campaign group STRiFE, granted planning permission in July last year, claiming the benefits outweighed the harm to the landscape..

The council then brought the matter to London’s High Court for a second time, arguing that last year’s planning permission should be quashed.

It claimed that the Secretary of State had erred in law and “fettered his discretion” in setting out a test for departing from the earlier decision.

The appeal was quashed by Mr Justice Holgate at the Royal Courts of Justice on March 13.

Sign the petition here.