THE inquiry has broken for lunch, with Mr Reed warning his cross-examination will take a further two hours.

Mr Reed has continued to try to unravel Mr Gallup's evidence, probing for technical flaws and stressing the council's case that retailers occupying the railfreight depot will distribute throughout the South-East region, rather than just in the north-west Home Counties.

If the inspector accepts this, Helioslough's opponents will have knocked a gaping hole in the company's alternative sites assessment, a crucial part of its argument.

The cross-examination has been tortuous, as Mr Reed invites the witness to accept various hypothetical points, and the pair dispute the meaning of "regional distribution", "domestic demand" and other key words.