DEFEATING the proposed monstrosity of a railfreight terminal has cost taxpayers more than £1 million so far and that will increase when St Albans District Council hands over its share of the developer’s bill.

Campaigners will say it was worth every penny and I am inclined to agree with them.

Those who fought alongside Cathy Bolshaw – who spearheaded campaign group Strife – deserve huge credit. Cathy deserves a medal.

The taste of victory was soured slightly when Secretary of State Eric Pickles’ announced his decision to force the district council to pay the expenses of the terminal’s would-be developer Helioslough. These will be substantial.

In 2009 the authority’s legal bill for the inquiry was £707,584. Helioslough's costs this time round could be higher and the council will have to pay approximately half.

Why? Because even though Mr Pickles reversed planning inspector Andy Meads' grant of the developer’s appeal, he agrees that the council acted “unreasonably” and prolonged the inquiry.

Now criticising the council is something I happy to do when it deserves it but, surely, in this case, it was simply protecting its turf.

The council asked questions of Helioslough which Mr Mead deemed needless. He also says: “The appellant sought clarification for the reason for refusal early in the appeal process and none was forthcoming. I shall recommend that the full costs of dealing with this reason for refusal should be awarded due to the unreasonableness of the reason for refusal and the unnecessary expenditure caused to the appellant in opposing it.”

Let me be cynical for just a moment.

Had the council given Helioslough a number of reasons for refusal, the developer may well have spent hundreds of thousands of pounds revising its plans. The district council might have found itself in the position of wanting to reject the amended plans, which ultimately, would be granted by the inspector.

If the council explained to Helioslough what its issues were with the most contentious aspects of its proposal, the developer’s team may well have had the time to address these, so much so that even Mr Pickles would find it impossible to reject the plans.

And let us be honest here, even if Helioslough came up with a way of addressing the noise pollution, the traffic problems and every other major issue this blight on our landscape would have caused, would you then be happy for it to be built? No, me neither.

So well done to the council for costing us more by giving Helioslough less.

We must now sit and wait for an announcement from Helioslough to see if it will appeal . . . again.

Let’s hope everyone is ready for round three.