Ownership of the Freehold Interest in Land Lying to the South of the North Orbital Road

APPENDIX 13

INFORMATION REGARDING OWNERSHIP OF PART OF THE FORMER RADLETT AERODROME, NORTH ORBITAL ROAD, ST ALBANS

1.1Ownership of the freehold interest in ‘Land lying to the south of the North Orbital Road and forming part of former Radlett Airfield Hertfordshire’ transferred from Lafarge Aggregates Limited to the County Council on 20 October 2006 and title to that land is registered at the Lands Registry under title number HD199655.

1.2The origin of the County Council’s ownership is in two legal agreements made on 6 August 1985 and completed on the same date as the grant of planning permission for gravel extraction and land restoration at the site.

1.3The agreement to transfer and the transfer itself were effected under the general powers that are contained in section 120 of the Local Government Act 1972. That Act can be seen at and the section 120 is titled “Acquisition of land by agreement by principal councils”.

1.4The agreements provided firstly for ownership of the land to transfer to the County Council and secondly for covenants to be imposed at the time for transfer.

1.5Accordingly, in the transfer of title to the County Council covenants were imposed as follows:

1.6The lands retained in 2006 by Lafarge that benefit from the covenants are to the east of the main line railway on the east side the former airfield, and they are shown upon the plan attached to the transfer, provided as appendix 14. It will be noted that those lands lie in part to the north and in part to the south of the route of the M25 motorway. Also that only the part of those lands that lie to the north of the motorway are included within the planning application for an SRFI [areas B G H and H correspond to areas 2 7 8 and 8 on the ownership and landscape plans].

1.7There was reserved for the benefit of those lands, many of which are mineral bearing, “a right of way at all times and for all purposes with or without vehicles over and along the access road” that runs north to south though the site from the access to the A414 to an access culvert beneath the railway line at about half way down the east boundary of the former airfield.

1.8There is an easement for an oil pipeline running west to east across the extreme north part of the site. There is a lease for an electricity sub-station at the west boundary of the site.

1.9There are old covenants affecting the title, that stem from transactions in 1944, 1951, 1954, 1956, 1966, 1978, 1983 and 1985, that are set out in the charges register of the title and all of which pre-date the transfer of title to the County Council in 2006.