THE benefits of the country park proposed by Helioslough to compensate for the harm to the Green Belt are far from clear, a countryside campaigner has told the inquiry.

Chris Pudsey of the St Albans Community Forest association said: “Most of the areas earmarked for the country park have open public access already.

“It is not clear who is expected to use the country park.

"If it is for local people, why is there a visitor centre and a large car park?”

She raised doubts over how the park was to be managed and funded, and said that Hedges Farm was likely to disappear.

She said; “It is ironic that a proposal put forward as sustainable will mean the end of a low intensity farm producing food locally, all in the interests of moving large volumes of goods over long distances.”