CONSERVATIVE MP David Lidington fears the Government is giving covert backing to Central Railway in its £5.6 billion proposal to build a rail freight line through the country.
The proposed line would carry lorries by rail from Liverpool to Lisle through Buckinghamshire, with a terminus near the M40/M25 interchange.
What is worrying Mr Lidington, MP for Aylesbury, is a meeting called in the House of Commons by minister Richard Caborn, at which the chairmen of five regional assemblies in England through which the line would run, met the chairman and chief executive of the company. They were asked whether they were prepared to see a bill introduced into the Commons to speed up Central Railway's plans.
When the Bucks Free Press asked Mr Lidington what he thought about this he was so concerned he immediately tabled two questions to Mr Caborn's boss, Stephen Byers, the Trade and Industry secretary.
Leader of Buckinghamshire County Council, David Shakespeare, chairman of the South East England Regional Assembly, was the only one to give the plan the thumbs down.
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