Lord Bracknell
On fire
The first stage of the re-opened Public Inquiry took place at Brighton Town Hall this morning. It was the formal Pre-Inquiry Meeting, chaired by the Inspector and attended by representatives of all the main parties to the Inquiry.
The purpose of the meeting was to allow the Inspector to set out the terms of reference for the Inquiry and for the parties to discuss how they will present their evidence.
The Terms of Reference will be exactly as set out in the letter from the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, dated 26 July. It was made very clear that the re-opened Inquiry will not be a re-run of the previous Inquiry, nor will it be a forum for considering Inspector John Collyer's Report.
The Inquiry will re-open on 2 February at Brighton Town Hall, and the new Inspector will make a brief tour of the possible alternative sites the previous day. A further tour will be arranged at the end of the Inquiry (which is, hopefully, scheduled for 22 February - although this will depend on the volume of evidence that is presented).
There was a lot of discussion about which alternative sites would be considered. The ODPM's letter identifies seven, but allows other sites to be put forward, provided they meet the realistic criteria for an acceptable, affordable 22,000 seater community stadium in the conurbation.
Lewes District Council made it clear that they would NOT be bringing forward any other possible sites (eg Newhaven). Neither will the Society of Sussex Downsmen. Falmer Parish Council were very coy about this question. They claimed to have a number of possible sites in mind, but they haven't yet finished their investigations as to whether these sites are available. They admitted that they "haven't had time to look at some of them", but they are holding a meeting next week to discuss things.
This caused some irritation among the other parties, who want early disclosure of all the sites that will have to be considered by the Inquiry. The Inspector made it clear that he doesn't want to see rabbits pulled out of hats. The Inspector acknowledged that there might be representations received from other people about further sites that might be considered. The Inquiry would simply have to deal with these as they came in. However, he didn't want the major parties to do this.
All major parties were being asked to submit their proofs of evidence by 7 January and obviously need to know what sites will need to be included in that evidence. Falmer PC seemed to think it would be OK to keep their evidence quiet until then, but they were eventually persuaded at least to reveal the locations as soon as they'd decided to prepare evidence about them. Tom Carr, for the Parish Council, finally said that he "hoped" to be able to do this by 26 October.
There was a lot of discussion about various administrative arrangements, including the order in which the major parties would present their evidence. This was complicated by the fact that the lawyer for Lewes District Council won't be available for a whole week of the Inquiry, yet wants to be present when all of the other major parties are presenting their evidence.
The Inspector concluded by asking the two local planning authorities, Lewes and Brighton & Hove, whether they were planning to publish a formal notification of the Public Inquiry, requesting written representations from local residents. Lewes DC gave a firm commitment to do this by the end of October. This is likely to take the form of a standard Public Notice in the local newspaper and, of course, gives those of us who live in Lewes District the opportunity to write to our Council and tell them what we think of their continuing opposition to the Club's plans.
A boring morning, but some useful information came out of it.
The purpose of the meeting was to allow the Inspector to set out the terms of reference for the Inquiry and for the parties to discuss how they will present their evidence.
The Terms of Reference will be exactly as set out in the letter from the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, dated 26 July. It was made very clear that the re-opened Inquiry will not be a re-run of the previous Inquiry, nor will it be a forum for considering Inspector John Collyer's Report.
The Inquiry will re-open on 2 February at Brighton Town Hall, and the new Inspector will make a brief tour of the possible alternative sites the previous day. A further tour will be arranged at the end of the Inquiry (which is, hopefully, scheduled for 22 February - although this will depend on the volume of evidence that is presented).
There was a lot of discussion about which alternative sites would be considered. The ODPM's letter identifies seven, but allows other sites to be put forward, provided they meet the realistic criteria for an acceptable, affordable 22,000 seater community stadium in the conurbation.
Lewes District Council made it clear that they would NOT be bringing forward any other possible sites (eg Newhaven). Neither will the Society of Sussex Downsmen. Falmer Parish Council were very coy about this question. They claimed to have a number of possible sites in mind, but they haven't yet finished their investigations as to whether these sites are available. They admitted that they "haven't had time to look at some of them", but they are holding a meeting next week to discuss things.
This caused some irritation among the other parties, who want early disclosure of all the sites that will have to be considered by the Inquiry. The Inspector made it clear that he doesn't want to see rabbits pulled out of hats. The Inspector acknowledged that there might be representations received from other people about further sites that might be considered. The Inquiry would simply have to deal with these as they came in. However, he didn't want the major parties to do this.
All major parties were being asked to submit their proofs of evidence by 7 January and obviously need to know what sites will need to be included in that evidence. Falmer PC seemed to think it would be OK to keep their evidence quiet until then, but they were eventually persuaded at least to reveal the locations as soon as they'd decided to prepare evidence about them. Tom Carr, for the Parish Council, finally said that he "hoped" to be able to do this by 26 October.
There was a lot of discussion about various administrative arrangements, including the order in which the major parties would present their evidence. This was complicated by the fact that the lawyer for Lewes District Council won't be available for a whole week of the Inquiry, yet wants to be present when all of the other major parties are presenting their evidence.
The Inspector concluded by asking the two local planning authorities, Lewes and Brighton & Hove, whether they were planning to publish a formal notification of the Public Inquiry, requesting written representations from local residents. Lewes DC gave a firm commitment to do this by the end of October. This is likely to take the form of a standard Public Notice in the local newspaper and, of course, gives those of us who live in Lewes District the opportunity to write to our Council and tell them what we think of their continuing opposition to the Club's plans.
A boring morning, but some useful information came out of it.
