HELIOSLOUGH has ignored rival railfreight sites which are not in the Green Belt, the council's barrister Matthew Reed is trying to prove.
Cross-examining planning consultant Richard Tilley, whose analysis purports to show the former Handley Page airfield is the only possible site, Mr Reed challenged him over three non-Green Belt locations between Wokingham and Bracknell in Berkshire.
He said: “You do not refer to the fact that they are not in the Green Belt, you exclude them because of a lack of road access.
“But why couldn't there be a by-pass to the south?”
The witness replied that there was a village and a proposed housing development on the only possible by-pass route, but acknowledged these objections did not apply to all three sites in the area.
Barrister and witness then clashed over the relative merits of sending lorries through Wokingham and Bracknell to reach the M3 and M4 respectively.
Mr Reed is pursuing these abstruse geographical points as Helioslough can justify destroying the Green Belt near Park Street only be proving it is the only - or by far the best – location for a railfreight terminal.
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