SIR, — I visited the public exhibition concerning the rail freight proposal. The gentleman who spoke to the group I joined made great play on the fact that the Secretary of State only gave refusal of their scheme because of the lack of assessment of alter

SIR, - I visited the public exhibition concerning the rail freight proposal. The gentleman who spoke to the group I joined made great play on the fact that the Secretary of State only gave refusal of their scheme because of the lack of assessment of alternative sites.

He was asked why they had not done the assessments. He said that they had but they had not presented them. I asked him why they had not done so. His reply was: "Don't you think I kick myself every day?"

I can only see two reasons for the omission of their surveys and perhaps I'm cynical.

1. Did they leave it out, thereby giving themselves the loophole so that they could reapply with the same proposal? He said that their proposal would be no different other than that they would now present their surveys of other sites. He also inferred that St Albans Council and the protesters should come up with something new if we wanted to win.

2. Why did they not know that they should have presented surveys of other possible sites? Was it not in the details that Government lay down for such a large development? If not, why not? Government must know that big business will find any way of presenting a good case and make sure that any little thing that might go against them is left out.

3. If they did know but failed to do so, should we and our council have to finance the next inquiry?

Are Helioslough trying to wear us down? We will have to put all of our effort in again, or are they trying to ruin us and our council financially? We really must make sure that as many people as possible are made aware of the consequences of such a proposal. This must mean people wider afield than Park Street, Radlett and St Albans. Those fromRedbourn and Harpenden and traffic approaching the scheme from the M1, M25, A1 and all other local roads will suffer, especially if there is any major disruption on any of the roads named. Even the air pollution could well affect them regardless of all the arguments that Helioslough put forward about these concerns.

MRS V. M. WILSON,

Ragged Hall Lane, St Albans.