HELIOSLOUGH'S sites assessment is deliberately biased in favour of its own scheme, the council's barrister Matthew Reed has accused.

Cross-examining the company's plannning consultant Richard Tilley, he said the study should have excluded sites where the rail line can not take container trucks 3.6 metres high, known as W8 loading gauge.

He said: “If you had used W8, Radlett would not have even made the long list – it would have fallen at the first hurdle.”

Mr Tilley replied that although parts of the Midland Main Line south of St Albans did not have the W8 gauge because of tunnels, others were classified as the larger W7 gauge, allowing trains 3.715 metres high.