Tom Hark Preston Park
Will Post For Cash
- Jul 6, 2003
- 72,347
Inquiry Day 8 – First Cuckoos Of Spring
Felt like we were getting let off for half-term today as the inspector dismissed the class at lunchtime, having received notes of absence from The Friends Of Stanmer Park and the Friends Of Waterhall, both of whom will be handing in written representations instead of giving evidence to the Inquiry.
Here’s the minutes (hmmm ‘minutes’... crap name for something that seems to drag on for endless hours)
1. Dates Update:
The inspector announced that the Inquiry will finish hearing evidence on 8/9 March. It will then adjourn til 12th April when closing submissions will be made. Between these dates the inspector will make further site visits, some escorted, some not. Mr.Clay for the Albion “not giving evidence” advised the inspector against a ground site visit to Upper Beeding Cement Works on account of the crumblingt cliffs and endangered species. He then further offered the inspector an aerial visit to the Cement Works by use of a 4-seater helicopter which an Albion board member has conveniently parked at Shoreham Airport. Inspector duly impressed, NIMBYs equally unimpressed.
2. First To Give Evidence – Mr. Robert Powell (specialist subject: Sheepcote Valley)
Mr. Powell read out his credentials of twenty years as Architect, City Planner, Rapid Transit expert both in this country and abroad and author of a book ‘The Stadium’ to be published in July this year, available from all good bookshops...). Mr Powell stated (after a bit of prompting) that he is currently employed by Mid Sussex District Council, tho stressing that he was appearing as a private citizen, and resident of Sheepcote Valley.
Mr. Powell treated us to a slideshow. He shall therefor henceforth be known as Slideshow Bob. Slides were of various ‘iconic’ football stadia, starting off with Huddersfield’s Mcalpine Stadium and the Reebok Stadium in Bolton before effortlessly circumnavigating the globe by way of Cardiff, Lisbon, Baltimore, San Francisco and Sydney. Good looking stadia every one of them, tho I couldn’t help but notice that the Pittsburg Arena appeared not to have a roof. Mr. Powell’s main thrust was that all of these new stadia were situated in brownfield sites and brought much needed urban regeneration. I thought we were going to be in trouble for a minute as he started off on a line of argument which stated that a Community stadium needs to be used 200 days a year if it is not to fail. Luckily, he then veered off straightaway from that potentially tricky area, to produce a map of a stadium site at. Sheepcote Valley. Far from being a NIMBY, Slideshow bob confessed he was a WIMBY – Welcome In My Back Yard. Why, he’d gone so far as to design a news-to-us Rapid Transport system to be known as the “Brighton Electric Tram System” (BETS). Some of it underground, all of it uncosted. And just to ensure that his lack of research did not go completely unnoticed, he then produced a matrix of his own ten-point scorecard, completely at odds with the ODPM’s nine-point scorecard for prospective sites, with the top four sites being, in order, Brighton Station , Sheepcote Valley, Waterhall, Falmer, followed by Toads Hall Valley. Mr. Clay demolished the first couple of Slideshow Bob’s nine points before delivering the coup-de-grace on the iconic building point. ‘You do realise that the same prime mover for both the Mcalpine Stadium and the Reebok Stadium is also the prime mover behind the Albion’s Stadium?’ Back of the NET! All BETS off! Martin Perry allowed himself a small smirk of satisfaction and Slideshow Bob moved his Rapid Transit swiftly into reverse, and out the door – presumably before The Friends Of Sheepcote Valley could appear and gave him a bloody good hiding.
(brief mention for the elderly Albion fan in scarf who entered the chamber round about this point, marched staright past the albion side, and plonked himself down between two FalmerParish Councillors in the back row on the NIMBY side – tremendous work completely oblivious fella!)
3. Second To Give Evidence – Miss Pettit (Shoreham Port resident)
Poor Miss Pettit had only got into about the second minute of her spiel about HGVs and Health Hazards at Shoreham when the inspector, sensing where this was going i.e. nowhere, gently suggested
that the current difficulties experienced by residents were outside his remit, sensitive as he was to her plight. He did however sympathetically allow her to expand on her theme of how she would have welcomed the stadium instead of the present set-up at the port and lamented the ‘wasted opportunity’. Blimey! Welcome In Miss Pettit’s BackYard also. People are falling OVER themselves to give us a ground. There were no cross-examination questions from anybody at all.
4. Third And Last To Give Evidence – Mr. Tony Vaughan (Shoreham Port Authority)
Now Mr. Vaughan may well be the least interesting public speaker ever to have graced the Council Chamber, but his verdict was so pro-Albion that for Mr. Clay to attempt any sort of cross-examination would surely have been pushing his luck. Briefly, Mr. Vaughan stated that in the opinion of SPA, “We feel that Shoreham Port is not an appropriate site for the stadium development”. For many and varied complex reasons, some of them to do with a hopelessly over-ambitious and barely started 20 year plan for something called the “Shoreham Port Vision”. Basically they won’t allow any ‘piecemeal’ development to take place that will disrupt Shoreham as a working port operation. A link road would have to be built, plus abnother dozen serious bullet points which came so thick and fast I didn’t have time (or inclination if truth be told) to write them down. Miss McPherson even managed to get Mr. Vaughan to concede that it would be practically ‘impossible’ for the Secretary Of State to obtain a compulsory purchase order for the site. Mr. Clay could only marvel at his good luck and simply stated that he would not be cross-examining as “the case put by the port is entirely consistent with the case put by the club”.
5. SMILES WIPED OFF FACES!
And that was that. No cross-examination by the NIMBYs as neither Mr.white nor Mr.Hawkins was present. But just as the inspector was letting us bunk off early, Miss McPherson stood up dramatically and announced she had very bad news that would remove the smiles from our faces. Oh shit! We all thought. Have the Tories staged a bloodless coup or something. But, no, the terrible news was that in order to fix the dodgy heating in the chamber that did make it a tad chilly for those of us in Seagulls Ska tee-shirts, has to be said, a bloke with a drill would have to carry out vital repairs. By drilling holes in the floor. The inspector hopefully added that maybe the weather would come to our rescue. If not, Miss McPherson offered, the work could probably be done at the weekend. So, crisis averted, but I do wish she wouldn’t DO that.
Felt like we were getting let off for half-term today as the inspector dismissed the class at lunchtime, having received notes of absence from The Friends Of Stanmer Park and the Friends Of Waterhall, both of whom will be handing in written representations instead of giving evidence to the Inquiry.
Here’s the minutes (hmmm ‘minutes’... crap name for something that seems to drag on for endless hours)
1. Dates Update:
The inspector announced that the Inquiry will finish hearing evidence on 8/9 March. It will then adjourn til 12th April when closing submissions will be made. Between these dates the inspector will make further site visits, some escorted, some not. Mr.Clay for the Albion “not giving evidence” advised the inspector against a ground site visit to Upper Beeding Cement Works on account of the crumblingt cliffs and endangered species. He then further offered the inspector an aerial visit to the Cement Works by use of a 4-seater helicopter which an Albion board member has conveniently parked at Shoreham Airport. Inspector duly impressed, NIMBYs equally unimpressed.
2. First To Give Evidence – Mr. Robert Powell (specialist subject: Sheepcote Valley)
Mr. Powell read out his credentials of twenty years as Architect, City Planner, Rapid Transit expert both in this country and abroad and author of a book ‘The Stadium’ to be published in July this year, available from all good bookshops...). Mr Powell stated (after a bit of prompting) that he is currently employed by Mid Sussex District Council, tho stressing that he was appearing as a private citizen, and resident of Sheepcote Valley.
Mr. Powell treated us to a slideshow. He shall therefor henceforth be known as Slideshow Bob. Slides were of various ‘iconic’ football stadia, starting off with Huddersfield’s Mcalpine Stadium and the Reebok Stadium in Bolton before effortlessly circumnavigating the globe by way of Cardiff, Lisbon, Baltimore, San Francisco and Sydney. Good looking stadia every one of them, tho I couldn’t help but notice that the Pittsburg Arena appeared not to have a roof. Mr. Powell’s main thrust was that all of these new stadia were situated in brownfield sites and brought much needed urban regeneration. I thought we were going to be in trouble for a minute as he started off on a line of argument which stated that a Community stadium needs to be used 200 days a year if it is not to fail. Luckily, he then veered off straightaway from that potentially tricky area, to produce a map of a stadium site at. Sheepcote Valley. Far from being a NIMBY, Slideshow bob confessed he was a WIMBY – Welcome In My Back Yard. Why, he’d gone so far as to design a news-to-us Rapid Transport system to be known as the “Brighton Electric Tram System” (BETS). Some of it underground, all of it uncosted. And just to ensure that his lack of research did not go completely unnoticed, he then produced a matrix of his own ten-point scorecard, completely at odds with the ODPM’s nine-point scorecard for prospective sites, with the top four sites being, in order, Brighton Station , Sheepcote Valley, Waterhall, Falmer, followed by Toads Hall Valley. Mr. Clay demolished the first couple of Slideshow Bob’s nine points before delivering the coup-de-grace on the iconic building point. ‘You do realise that the same prime mover for both the Mcalpine Stadium and the Reebok Stadium is also the prime mover behind the Albion’s Stadium?’ Back of the NET! All BETS off! Martin Perry allowed himself a small smirk of satisfaction and Slideshow Bob moved his Rapid Transit swiftly into reverse, and out the door – presumably before The Friends Of Sheepcote Valley could appear and gave him a bloody good hiding.
(brief mention for the elderly Albion fan in scarf who entered the chamber round about this point, marched staright past the albion side, and plonked himself down between two FalmerParish Councillors in the back row on the NIMBY side – tremendous work completely oblivious fella!)
3. Second To Give Evidence – Miss Pettit (Shoreham Port resident)
Poor Miss Pettit had only got into about the second minute of her spiel about HGVs and Health Hazards at Shoreham when the inspector, sensing where this was going i.e. nowhere, gently suggested
that the current difficulties experienced by residents were outside his remit, sensitive as he was to her plight. He did however sympathetically allow her to expand on her theme of how she would have welcomed the stadium instead of the present set-up at the port and lamented the ‘wasted opportunity’. Blimey! Welcome In Miss Pettit’s BackYard also. People are falling OVER themselves to give us a ground. There were no cross-examination questions from anybody at all.
4. Third And Last To Give Evidence – Mr. Tony Vaughan (Shoreham Port Authority)
Now Mr. Vaughan may well be the least interesting public speaker ever to have graced the Council Chamber, but his verdict was so pro-Albion that for Mr. Clay to attempt any sort of cross-examination would surely have been pushing his luck. Briefly, Mr. Vaughan stated that in the opinion of SPA, “We feel that Shoreham Port is not an appropriate site for the stadium development”. For many and varied complex reasons, some of them to do with a hopelessly over-ambitious and barely started 20 year plan for something called the “Shoreham Port Vision”. Basically they won’t allow any ‘piecemeal’ development to take place that will disrupt Shoreham as a working port operation. A link road would have to be built, plus abnother dozen serious bullet points which came so thick and fast I didn’t have time (or inclination if truth be told) to write them down. Miss McPherson even managed to get Mr. Vaughan to concede that it would be practically ‘impossible’ for the Secretary Of State to obtain a compulsory purchase order for the site. Mr. Clay could only marvel at his good luck and simply stated that he would not be cross-examining as “the case put by the port is entirely consistent with the case put by the club”.
5. SMILES WIPED OFF FACES!
And that was that. No cross-examination by the NIMBYs as neither Mr.white nor Mr.Hawkins was present. But just as the inspector was letting us bunk off early, Miss McPherson stood up dramatically and announced she had very bad news that would remove the smiles from our faces. Oh shit! We all thought. Have the Tories staged a bloodless coup or something. But, no, the terrible news was that in order to fix the dodgy heating in the chamber that did make it a tad chilly for those of us in Seagulls Ska tee-shirts, has to be said, a bloke with a drill would have to carry out vital repairs. By drilling holes in the floor. The inspector hopefully added that maybe the weather would come to our rescue. If not, Miss McPherson offered, the work could probably be done at the weekend. So, crisis averted, but I do wish she wouldn’t DO that.
