Day 3 - Fri 4th Feb - SMOKE AND MIRRORS...

[Marc]

Just for you then Crabbers. And pay attention - I will be asking questions later.

SAKE Easy its 9:20am, I'm hungover after a whole day on the piss, I'm having trouble concentrating on my cup of coffee let along a HUGE post about friday. Gimme a couple of hours and I'll be ready

 

[Marc]

Indeed Top Posting easy

I'm getting miffed at Mr White (sounds like something outta Reservoir Dogs) and his "Delaying Tactics" as I call them, or LDC and their ways. Surely the Inspector can say to him "you knew the dates before hand, be here or not we will continue without you if need be". Might be worth investigating if he fails to re-arrange his gold trip!

I'm popping in there tomorrow and/or wednesday, if only to get a glance at that secretary totty

I shall of course report with my findings.

 

[Rangdo]

I'm looking forward to when we can start ripping into LDCs laughable "evidence".

 

[Easy 10]

Surely the Inspector can say to him "you knew the dates before hand, be here or not we will continue without you if need be". Might be worth investigating if he fails to re-arrange his gold trip

You'd think so, wouldn't you ?
I was hoping the Inspector would have been tougher on him as soon as he dropped that little gem on the proceedings. Clay was spitting feathers, but the Inspector was more kind of "oh well, can you try to move it ?"

Can't see how the Inquiry can just plough on regardless, without the LDC lawyer there for those two days. That'd probably give grounds for a judicial review by the NIMBYS if they don't get the decision they want - we already know full well those fuckers will grasp at ANYTHING.

 

[Marc]

yeah good point, I still think after all this, that if we DO get the greenlight they will go down the EU Court Of Law route or find some other way to halt/delay further proceedings. They need a good shoeing and waking up to reality, I hope to corner a LDC member at somepoint and ask him/her why they are wasting thousands of tas payers £££ on this when a large majority of their tax payers WANT the stadium. gets right on my nipples this does

 

[Lord Bracknell]

My latest report, shortly to appear somewhere else (but I know how much people like to think of that place as being weeks behind NSC with all the tittle-tattle):-



The groan from the public gallery was almost audible. Almost, but not quite, because nothing is audible in Brighton Town Hall’s council chamber unless it’s uttered into a microphone three inches from the speaker’s mouth. ‘Can you lean forward, Mr Clay?’ could become a new catchphrase.

We had just finished listening to the transport evidence presented by Mark Leigh, the Albion’s expert witness from the Savell Bird & Axon Transportation consultancy. He had started speaking on Thursday afternoon and it was now mid morning on Friday, at the end of the first week of the resumed Inquiry. Everyone was getting fairly tired and not a little irritated.

Things weren’t helped by the fact that transport evidence turns out to be a lot of detailed numbers, read out from a document that only the witness, the Inspector and a few important people at the front have a copy of. It also didn’t help that we had learned at the beginning of the morning that, despite the best efforts of almost everyone to re-jig the Inquiry timetable to get things finished by Wednesday 9 March, it now looked likely that things would have to drag on until mid April, because Robert White, the lawyer for Lewes District Council, had an ‘immovable professional obligation’ that would keep him away on the two days in March that had been set aside in the re-jigged timetable for something called ‘Closing Submissions’.

‘Closing Submissions’ is the penalty shoot-out at the end of the Inquiry, the summing-up by each of the main parties that will highlight the key issues and send the Inspector off to write his report with all the important arguments from the previous six weeks fresh in his mind. If you’re one of the lawyers, you can’t not be there for the ‘Closing Submissions’. It would be like Adam Virgo trotting across to Mark McGhee on a wet night in May, as the end of a pretty important game approached. ‘Sorry gaffer, I’ve gotta go now. It’s getting late. I’m meeting my mates in Brighton for a drink’.

Anyway... we were all irritated to hear of Mr White’s immovable professional obligation. We were exhausted from many hours of trying to keep up with the numbers that Mr Leigh had been expounding. 9,300 people would have no way of getting to Upper Beeding. There would be between 12 and 30 kilometres of additional traffic queues, spread over a dozen key road junctions in Brighton and Hove if there was a match at Sheepcote Valley. 2,035 cars would turn up at Sheepcote Valley with only the surrounding streets to park in, because the available off-street car parks would be full. Falmer has 8 per cent of the Albion’s catchment area population living within cycling distance. And cycling distance is 5 kilometres. Incidentally, why do cyclists pedal kilometres, while pedestrians walk miles?

And then we groaned. Almost audibly. The Inspector asked Mr White a very simple question. ‘How much time do you want to question Mr Leigh?’

‘Three hours’ came the reply. Three hours!! Groan. We all knew that when Mr White finishes, Charlie Hopkins, the Falmer Parish Council lawyer, will want his go. Then Hazel McKay will ask questions on behalf of the Regency Society. And Mr Small from the Sussex Downs Conservation Board will want to demonstrate why most people call it the conversation board. And the CPRE and the Society of Sussex Downsmen. And anyone else who wants to join in.

It’s not as if the numbers that Mr Leigh had been explaining are particularly difficult to follow, if you’re important enough to have been supplied with a copy of the document where they are all written down. It’s just that some people want to take three hours to ensure that we and, more importantly, the Inspector end up as confused as possible.

And it will get worse. When Mr Leigh escapes from his tortuous cross-examination, the Inquiry will get to hear from two more transport experts, one engaged by the City Council (who are, at least, a local transport authority) and one who has been paid for by Lewes District Council (who aren’t). How much time do you want to question the witnesses, Mr White?

If we are really lucky, we might also get an appearance from someone from the Highways Agency as well. Although it’s just possible that they will confine themselves to submitting a letter. A very short letter. A letter that says ‘You can’t have a stadium at Toads Hole Valley or Waterhall, or Shoreham Airport, because we won’t let you block the A27 and A23 with traffic on matchdays and we won’t let you build new junctions on our trunk roads’.

But, I hear you say, what did Mr Leigh’s evidence demonstrate? Well … there’s the three hour answer. Or this one. There is only one stadium site that can deliver what the government’s planning policy requires – a sustainable transport system that won’t clog the roads up with traffic. It’s called Falmer.

And the numbers prove it. But Mr White will still be asking questions when the Inquiry resumes on Tuesday.

 

[Lord Bracknell]

My latest report, shortly to appear somewhere else (but I know how much people like to think of that place as being weeks behind NSC with all the tittle-tattle):-

Bloody hell! That comment prompted a quick reaction in the other place.

 

[:J)]

Bloody hell! That comment prompted a quick reaction in the other place.

The Other Place - do you mean The House of Lords?

 

[Easy 10]

"LORD BRACKNELL IN OFFICIAL SITE SAVAGING"

 

[Lord Bracknell]

The Other Place - do you mean The House of Lords?

Sadly, it will be MONTHS before news from the Inquiry gets anywhere near Westminster.

 

[Lord Bracknell]

"LORD BRACKNELL IN OFFICIAL SITE SAVAGING"

As I've been trying to point out ...

There is only ONE site.

 

[Marc]

is there anyone doing simular Lord B/Easy style write ups for the NIMBY side? as I'd be interested to read their point of view on the current proceedings, anyone know?

 

[Biscuit]

Great post easy, but Im stuck on one thing here..

why should the intired inquiry STOP FOR FIVE f***ing WEEKS BECAUSE SOME NIMBY WANKER HAS AN 'IMMOVABLE APPOINTMENT' HE DIDN'T HAVE YESTERDAY?

Can anyone help me with this?

 

[perseus]

Has anybody got the list of participants at the Public Inquiry please?

 

[Biscuit]

is there anyone doing simular Lord B/Easy style write ups for the NIMBY side? as I'd be interested to read their point of view on the current proceedings, anyone know?

http://falmer.org.uk the site is I think. Don't know if there is anything on it.

 

[Wilka]

The delaying tatics by the nimbys make me sick!

Tops post though Easy! If the Inquiry was half as interesting as this post i'm sure the gallery would be packed every day!

 

[Marc]

http://falmer.org.uk the site is I think. Don't know if there is anything on it.

nothing new there

 

[Rangdo]

Great post easy, but Im stuck on one thing here..

why should the intired inquiry STOP FOR FIVE f***ing WEEKS BECAUSE SOME NIMBY WANKER HAS AN 'IMMOVABLE APPOINTMENT' HE DIDN'T HAVE YESTERDAY?

Can anyone help me with this?

Because he's a sly **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** ****

 

[Lord Bracknell]

Great post easy, but Im stuck on one thing here..

why should the intired inquiry STOP FOR FIVE f***ing WEEKS BECAUSE SOME NIMBY WANKER HAS AN 'IMMOVABLE APPOINTMENT' HE DIDN'T HAVE YESTERDAY?

Can anyone help me with this?

When the resumed Inquiry was first announced, a start date in early January was suggested.

Lewes DC let it be known that one of their key witnesses wouldn't be available then (the "ski-ing holiday" gambit).

The Club then said that they could be ready by early December. Lewes DC said they couldn't meet that deadline (the "we're a very busy council" gambit).

So a start date at the beginning of February was set. Falmer Parish Council then said they had two new sites they'd like the Inquiry to look at (the "cement works" gambit, rarely seen these days, ever since the mafia scaled down their involvement in the construction industry).

To allow for this, extra days had to be added to the Inquiry programme and an end date of Friday 11 March was set.

Then Brighton & Hove City Council let it be known that the Town Hall Council Chamber wouldn't be available on Thursday 10 March, because an important council meeting had been booked (the "Lewes aren't the only busy council" gambit, or "own goal" gambit, depending on your point of view).

Then the Inspector asked everyone to bend over backwards to achieve an early finish (the much admired "be reasonable" gambit).

Everyone suddenly turned reasonable and a new end date of Wednesday 9 March looked achievable.

Only for Lewes DC to play the "immovable professional obligation" gambit that will now delay the closing submissions until the week beginning 11 April.


The reason for the five week delay is the non-availability of almost everyone during those five weeks - including the Inspector. This was known right from the start. Whether it played any part in the thinking of Lewes DC is a matter that some people might like to speculate about. I couldn't possibly comment, apart from making the observation that senior Lewes Lib Dem councillors (and Norman Baker) have consistently BLAMED JOHN PRESCOTT.

 

[The Large One]

Hang on. Are you saying that the Inspector is ALLOWING this delay, or is this something we are going to find out one and for all tomorrow?