Falmer - Another View

[Storer68]

A few facts please to clear the confusion.

The report that said the site was too small was the Inspector's report on the Council's local plan - NOT the stadium application.

These are only reccomendations to the Council which they are entitled to reject or accept as they see fit.

We do not know what the reccomendations from the Inspector who conducted the public enquiry into the Planning Application for the Stadium has said in his report.

ONLY the ODPM know what timescale they are working to (and if anyone else does then they aren't saying).

 

[Yorkie]

Woah, Yorkie. By saying this, you are making an assumption that the Planning Inspector has recommended rejection. We don't know what he has said.

I did assume that by the way he said that Falmer was too small (not taking into account the University buildings which are to be demolished and relocated) and recommended Brighton council to consider the Station area and Sheepcote valley instead.

As said by Storer we don't know what the other inspector said.

 

[chips and gravy]

If it is to be No, is that the end of the story? Not suggesting that we would want to, but could there be scope for a further planning application on the same site? Or would the decision put an end to our hopes?

Just curious

 

[Jim D]

Curious Orange - I think that if they announce a 'No' in the middle of Euro 2004 (especially just after an England victory) then a lot of people who would otherwise be supporting us - and against the Government - will be distracted. In addition, if we get promoted this season then a good few Brighton fans will say 'Oh well, at least we've got first division football to look forward to'.

There is an art to the release of bad news that this Government seems to appreciate, and I wouldn't put it past them to time the release to cause the minimum damage to them. Of course, that's assuming the news will be bad - and I sincerely hope it isn't.

From what I've seen and heard about Prescott I would expect him to make a politically-based, rather than a factually-based decision (although the two can be the same). On this basis I'm quite hopeful that he'll say 'Yes'.

 

[Beach Hut]

Sorry, Beach Hut, but unless your 'source' works in the ODPM and is privy to information that they believe should be in the public domain before it is officially released, then this information is worthless and meaningless.

Don't be sorry I hope this information is wrong as well.

 

[Sergi Gotsmanov]

The civil service have never come to a decision on anything quickly.

If they did then someone might realise that they don't need that many of them.

I hope that the answer will be a YES without too many stupid conditions....but.....do I really believe Prescott has even looked at it?......................

NO WAY.

Have you seen how much his dept are responsible for.
Trust me the final say rests with some knob of a civil servant who won't make up his mind until October.

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

Jim


Exactly what I was going to say.

I have heard (not from someone in the know) that the decision will be delayed until after the local elections; which of course can only mean 1 outcome, a great big NO. I guess Prescott hasn't read Build a Bonfire, and doesn't fully comprehend just how militant we can be. Over the last 5 or 6 years, that side of our 'campaigning' has been put on hold, as we needed to keep many disparate groups 'onside' to our agrguments; but if it does get turned down I can see it getting messy, especially for the local labour MPs. I of course don't mean violence, but there will be some concerted protests outside the labour party conference, and we almost certainly WILL put up candidates against everyone who has been seen to be complicite in the NO decision.

As someone mentioned earlier, the taint will stay with the local labour party, the same way Bellotti has ruined the Lib Dems chances over the years (at least in the eyes of Albion fans). And as for Norman Baker!!

Papa

Tremendous post! If this decision goes against us, it effectively means that an 11-1 YES decision by the council and the votes of 50,000 referendum votes by constituents effectively count for JACKSHIT. At which point, natural-born lifelong Labour voters such as myself declare ELECTORAL WAR on the Labour party for putting the greedhead 'concerns' of 150 NIMBYs who neither know nor care for anything beyond their pathetic Property Prices above the greater needs of the community which they say they serve. At that point, all bets are off and I for one will take tremendous pleasure in kicking my local Labour MP out of office. Nothing personal, like...

 

[Beach Hut]

Fair comment - if it is a no I will definitely go anti-Labour big time

 

[balloonboy]

OK, I think I understand the situation - the longer we wait the more likely the decision is to be

YES (because the ODPM is getting all the legals sorted)

NO (because the ODPM is waiting for the close season so they can announce it with minimal disruption).

Glad I started reading this thread.....

 

[West Hoathly Seagull]

I guess it's too far fetched to hope that some of our friends at other clubs might vote out Labour MPs as well. For example, Don Valley is the seat of Caroline Flint, the Drugs minister. Despite being in South Yorkshire it is quite marginal. Wimbledon is also very marginal, as are Bury North and Oxford West (though that is held by the Lib Dems). I can't think of many others at the moment, but these are clubs who have either nearly gone out of business or had battles to get stadiums. Of course Hastings and Crawley are marginal as well, but I don't know how much support we have in those towns. Apart from Lewes and Eastbourne the rest of Sussex is solidly Tory.

 

[berkshire seagull]

Personally i feel the longer it goes on the worse it will get
Just that applications that are a high chance of getting the go ahead are dealt with pretty quick and the longer it goes on the more it will get harder.

They say know news is good news,but in these situations it can't be good news although looking at it all it looks 70/30 in my eyes in our favour as far to many posotives than negatives.

 

[Hunting 784561]

My gut feel is under normal circumstances the answer would have been 'No' but Two Jags and his civil servants havent found the political answer of saying it yet. There will be a lot of very angry people if this does finally go against us. The York City riot will look like a picnic.

I am also very unhappy with the actions of Liberal Lewes MP Norman Baker. Falmer isnt even in his constituency FFS ! He should have kept his nose out. He was also personally responsible for intervening and getting all of the Sussex bypass schemes recently rejected. If youve got lorries rumbling past your front door.....you can blame him.

 

[Bwian]

My gut feel is under normal circumstances the answer would have been 'No' but Two Jags and his civil servants havent found the political answer of saying it yet.

I heard exactly that-(and no, I can't say from whom).

As it was told to me-it was only our quick actions that stopped the 'no' being announced. I was also told that the more we keep campaigning, the better our chances are of a 'yes' although nothing is certain.

If DK and MP were/are totally confident that we'll get approval why is the club, FFA and others all encouraging us to not let up in our campaign? Getting us to write to all Labour MPs?

In fear of sounding like a one trick pony-We need to keep going and to keep looking for that one idea that will make everybody (and specifically the ODPM) sit up and take notice. As good as our campaigns have been we haven't really got the attention of the national press. Shit, some of campaigns have barely made the Argus FFS.

 

[berkshire seagull]

I heard exactly that-(and no, I can't say from whom).

As it was told to me-it was only our quick actions that stopped the 'no' being announced. I was also told that the more we keep campaigning, the better our chances are of a 'yes' although nothing is certain.

If DK and MP were/are totally confident that we'll get approval why is the club, FFA and others all encouraging us to not let up in our campaign? Getting us to write to all Labour MPs?

In fear of sounding like a one trick pony-We need to keep going and to keep looking for that one idea that will make everybody (and specifically the ODPM) sit up and take notice. As good as our campaigns have been we haven't really got the attention of the national press. Shit, some of campaigns have barely made the Argus FFS.

Campaigns are to spread the word and drum up support,but to be quiet frank the goverment do not hold things up just because of a campaign etc.

My opion is that its tosh that he has decided to re-think because of the bha campaigns as basicly they hardly give to shits about campaigns and marches etc happen week in week out without success.

Has anyone got any faith in this goverment as i certainly don't as half the time they go against things all to often.
He was about to say no is pure crap full stop and i personally don't think fatty gives a shit about campaigns,but who knows.

 

[Bwian]

Campaigns are to spread the word and drum up support,but to be quiet frank the goverment do not hold things up just because of a campaign etc.

My opion is that its tosh that he has decided to re-think because of the bha campaigns as basicly they hardly give to shits about campaigns and marches etc happen week in week out without success.

Has anyone got any faith in this goverment as i certainly don't as half the time they go against things all to often.
He was about to say no is pure crap full stop and i personally don't think fatty gives a shit about campaigns,but who knows.

If you say so.

 

[London Irish]

Most of this thread is very unhelpful. People should heed The Large One's words.

Delay? What the f***? Eight weeks is a blink of an eye as regards planning/civil service matters.

All these conspiracy theories about Prescott plotting the right time to say No are utterly juvenile. Grow up.

Speculation about what Albion fans should do in the event of a No is also an utterly unhelpful distraction. We're in the middle of a campaign and No shouldn't even be part of our vocabulary right now.

To change tack a little, it was good to see Ivor Caplin wearing the Stripes on official government business in Iraq (picture today in the Argus p12).

Caplin is a fat right-wing warmongering ****, but at least he's our fat right-wing warmongering **** and, at a push, he's better than a Tory in Hove, who would not only deny us a stadium, but would privatise our schools and hospitals as well.

 

[berkshire seagull]

I gather you have total respect for the goverment then and agree they make great decisions.
true people do demo's and rally up all-sorts to make sure they have done there bit for the campaign and to spread the word,but do you feel they actually care about rallys and protests etc as from what i have seen in recent years its only the massive things that get recognised i.e poll tax etc.

The fat cats up there love making massive decisions and don't batter an eye lid to rejecting things.
In my book this falmer is massive for the whole of sussex and the community and all partys should be sorting it out to get it up and running as soon as possible at no exspense.

Thats what fucks me off more than anything is the thought of having to do so much and spend so much just to get a football stadium in the newest city.

Why should we have to beg and protest and drum up support as its pathetic it rearly is as its of national importance for future events and even worse a club with huge potential,so if its a no it just sums up that this goverment don't give to shits about sport and moving forward as a whole.

Lets be honest if falmer gets rejected they the goverment and the council should go flat out straight away and find that site as from what we here there is alternatives,but at a high cost of course and they should pay that extra full stop,so basicly this is the real test for em to see if sport matters.

 

[berkshire seagull]

Not for you irish