A confidential report on Asda plans for Wealdstone has warned that a small pocket of land owned by a railway company could cause "potential problems".

Harrow Council's head of construction Geoff Easton has warned that uncertainty over a strip of land running alongside Ellen Webb Drive owned by Railtrack could derail the process when compulsory purchase orders become necessary.

"The status of the land (operational or non-operational) determines whether it can or cannot be included within a within a CPO," Mr Easton reported.

"The implications of this are considerable for the scheme proposal and would need to be clarified before a CPO was processed and probably before the development agreement is entered into."

Asda has taken the view that the agreements with Harrow Council need to be negotiated before the Railtrack situation is investigated, but some councillors have argued that there are too many areas of doubt surrounding the entire development.

Labour leader Councillor Bob Shannon, who was behind the referral of the scheme to the Department for the Environment, is calling for all grey areas to be cleared up.

"We are not anti-Asda but we are pro-Wealdstone and if this is hurried through without consideration for important details, there could be a price to be paid," he said.

A council spokesman said: "The normal course of events is that the applicant will approach the owners of the land to negotiate its release if they wish to proceed with the development."

On Tuesday, Asda signed a contract to redevelop an eight-acre site opposite Brent Town Hall in Wembley.

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