HELIOSLOUGH'S barrister is painstakingly repairing the evidence of his crucial witness, wilting after an intense cross-examination.

Planning consultant Richard Tilley, whose alternative sites study purports to prove the former Handley Page airfield is the only, or by far the best, location for a railfreight depot, spent two days last week defending it from assault by the district council and Strife.

This afternooon, Helioslough's barrister Martin Kingston, re-examining his witness, pointed out that Tesco, a potential occupier of its depot, favoured distribution in the north-west sector of the M25, rather than throughout the Home Counties.

The council has produced a survey of retailers to support its argument that the railfreight depot could be anywhere in the Home Counties, serving the whole South-East region, but Mr Kingston highlighted a letter from Tesco suggesting otherwise.

He has also stressed expert reports which say other railfreight depots at Colnebrook near Slough and Sundon north of Luton should be “complementary” not rivals to the Helioslough scheme.

Asked to respond to criticism from Mr Reed that he had not considered potential sites allocated for housing or industrial development., Mr Tilley said: “There are very strong government targets requiring more housing.

“Sending lorries through residential areas would produce significant problems.”

As his sites study uses a similar method successfully used to push through a railfreight terminal at Howbury Park in south-east London, Mr Kingston asked him how rigorously it had been contested by opponents of that scheme.

Mr Tilley replied: “It was looked at quite thoroughly over a number of years leading up to the enquiry.

“The scrutiny was intense.”

Responding to Mr Reed's criticism that he had exaggerated the difficulties of building a rail link to any hypothetical railfreight depot in the Chiltern hills, he said: “It would be dismissed out of hand.

“It would have no prospect whatever of getting planning permission.”