A BITTER court battle that could decide the fate of one of Britain's oldest cattle marts began yesterday with claims council chiefs wanted to drive the market out.

Officials from Darlington Farmers Auction Mart have accused Darlington Borough Council of acting in its own interest by serving a noise abatement order that would force the mart to close.

A witness for the 130-year-old mart said the notice, which restricts animal deliveries and collections between 7am and 9pm, would have a catastrophic effect on business.

He said the move was part of a council plan to force the mart to leave the town centre site.

But lawyers acting for the council dismissed the allegation as "scurrilous, inappropriate and wholly untrue", and said the council was carrying out its statutory duty after an investigation into noise nuisance following repeated complaints.

The mart is appealing against the notice, issued in January under the Environmental Protection Act 1990, which said the noise came from vehicles, shouting, gates banging and animals being unloaded.

Mart officials say unloading must be done early in the morning to allow for time to process animals being sold and taken to slaughter the same day.

Darlington Magistrates' Court was told yesterday that the notice was served to the mart after an environmental health officer visited the site at 4.15am one Thursday.

The court heard from Arthur Corner, a director at the mart since 1984, who, after being questioned by the council's barrister, Alex Booth, said he thought the council had ulterior motives.

Referring to the mart's argument, Mr Booth told Mr Corner: "One of the allegations that is made is that the council in serving this notice has some ulterior motive to drive the market away because it covets the land for itself - there is some financial incentive.

"I put it to you that that is absolutely wrong and there is not one single shred of evidence for what is a scurrilous, inappropriate and wholly inaccurate accusation."

Mr Booth said the council would have no financial gain from the sale of the site, as any money would go to the auction mart.

But Mr Corner said: "The council have a lot to gain by getting rid of the mart. It is a very valuable site."

Mart director and auctioneer Stephen Aitken also took the stand and accused the council of backing the mart into a corner over plans to move the auction market out of town.

He said at a meeting with two council officers - which he claimed was off-the-record at their insistence - they had said plans to relocate the mart on land at Humbleton Farm, off the A68, were not feasible.

He said one of the officers had asked for the meeting to be at the mart rather than the council offices, which was unusual, and for no one else from the mart to be present.

He said the officers suggested the mart relocate to land at Faverdale, which the council owned, in exchange for land the mart owned off Neasham Road.

Mr Aitken said: "We were being put into a corner. This was the only way it was going to work, they said."

But Mr Booth suggested Mr Aitken had asked for the meeting and that the officers had not insisted on meeting at the mart - both of which Mr Aitken denied.

The court also heard from William Goodrick, who has lived in Clifton Road, opposite the mart, for eight years.

He told the court that although his house had double glazing, he was regularly woken by banging gates, shouting, unloading animals and lorries arriving at 4.30am on Mondays and Thursdays. He said that on one or two occasions he had been woken on other mornings at 1.30am by a lorry arriving.

He said the noise had increased since the foot-and-mouth restrictions were lifted and had been complaining to the council for the past two or three years. He said the noise often went on for two or three hours and prevented him from getting back to sleep.

He said: "It goes on for two or three hours then it quietens off a bit, but by that time, on a normal day, it is time to get up for work."