Residents protesting about Railtrack's plan to dump up to 10,000 tonnes of ballast near their homes could be helped in their fight by Oxfordshire County Council.

The authority's director of environmental services, David Young, is seeking permission to decide if rules giving Railtrack the automatic go-ahead for the scheme can be overturned.

The firm wants to put the ballast mound, which would be 200m long and 4.5m high, on a railway siding in Marlborough Road, New Hinksey, Oxford.

People living nearby fear they will be subjected to dust and noise from lorries and last week held a public meeting, attended by Oxford West and Abingdon MP Dr Evan Harris.

The county council is unhappy with the scheme because it is on green belt land but is powerless to stop Railtrack from going ahead through normal channels.

But Mr Young wants the county council's environmental planning committee to let him consider serving a direction to remove the automatic right from Railtrack.

Members of the committee will visit the site before it meets on Monday, August 24, and will have to decide if they are unhappy with Railtrack's plan before granting Mr Young permission. The automatic right was given to Railtrack under the Town and Country Planning (General Permitted Develop- ment) Order 1995, but the document states a local authority could take the right away.

To do so it would need permission from the Government and would be liable for compensation.

In the report, Mr Young wrote: "The council's legal unit is to ad- vise on this possibility."

He added: "Notwithstanding the compensation issue, a direction should only be considered if it is concluded that the Railtrack proposal is unreasonable and/or that harm to the local environment cannot be limited."

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