THE railfreight inquiry has debated how the problems of the project could be addressed through planning conditions.

Helioslough and the council have drawn up 33 conditions designed to give residents reassurance that the project, if given planning permission, will not devastate their lives and ruin the area for ever.

The conditions insist, for instance, that no warehouses can be occupied until the Park Street by-pass and other road improvements are in place.

The conditions were discussed in detail last week, but this afternoon the barristers debated comments on them by various third parties such as the county council and the Highways Agency.

Strife has proposed alterations to the conditions, in particular to tighten up noise control, but the merits of these will be argued out in detail in closing submissions over the next two days.

Mr Kingston has argued against a condition forcing it to use local supplliers, claimuing it is designed to wreck the whole scheme by making it impractical and uncommercial.

Mr Stinchcombe will sum up Strife's overall argument against the project at 10am tomorrow, while Mr Reed will give two closing statements, either side of lunch, and Mr Kingston is due to make his case on Friday.

The closing statements will be folowed after lunch on Friday by a debate on Helioslough's 14-page costs application, to which Mr Reed has already written a ten-page response.