Read the Local Plan Inspector's Report Here

[Ex Shelton Seagull]

Ok, here’s what it looks like to me.
1) The stadium will be noisy. He makes no mention of how often the noise would occur. Accoridng to him the noise would be permanent and would occur constantly throughout the year.
2) Even though you can’t see the stadium from Falmer village it would still ruin the visual effect of Falmer village.
3) The Brighton plan of 1995 makes no mention of any sports development, therefore no sports development should ever take place on the site. He REALLY likes EP7 in the plan of 1995.
4) Our little provincial club is not worthy of any land here.
5) Brighton University isn’t much cop either.
6) Brighton station carpark is currently being proposed for development. IF this falls through then he thinks we could move here despite the fact that the site is smaller than Falmer. He doesn’t mention how a stadium could be built here.
7) Withdean’s alright for us. It’s a bit poky but we’re only a “provincial” club, right? The club and the council would be pretty pissed off about having to play here for a long time but they’d get over it. He doesn’t think that we’d ever get kicked out of Withdean. After all we can get a capacity of nearly 9,000 which is more than enough for proles like us.
8) He recommends Toads Hole Valley and then says we can’t play there because he thinks an industrial estate would be a better addition to the local area.
9) Sheepcote Valley is a bit of a shit hole really, so it’s suitable for us. We could hide the stadium away so it couldn’t offend peoples eyes. There’s a few problems (no real road access, no train station nearby, drainage) but he can’t really be arsed to go into those at the present time. Besides, it’s the clubs fault for not providing him with a detailed financial plan for developing a site they’d rejected a number of years earlier.
10) Downland is downland. As far as he’s concerned Village Way North is the same as Devil’s Dyke and should be treated as such. The A27, university buildings, railway line and station don’t effect this one bit.
11) If you stand on a hill you can see the stadium. That’s bad.
12) The site is too small to fit a stadium, sports hall and laboratory into. If you wanted to fit them in you’d have to raise the stadium up and that’s bad news. You would be able to see it from the hill even if it was half buried. God knows the effect it would have on walkers eyes if it was raised up a bit.
13) He doesn’t bother looking at out finances or our financial proposals because he’s heard off the TV that Leeds are in the shit so therefore we must be too. Other football teams are in financial trouble therefore so are we. He doesn’t mention the financial plan because he’s just heard that Livingston are going into administration so therefore our plan (the one that’s been approved by the council) must be bollocks.
14) The financial plan he hasn’t looked at won’t cover the cost so we’d try and get a retail park built next to the stadium to fund its construction. He then thinks we might be successful if we get Falmer built, so therefore we’d try and increase capacity. Good to see he realises that Falmer is the key to our success.
15) After all this unpleasantness is over he wants the council to promise that they’ll never, never, never, try and build anything at Falmer EVER again. The naughty so and so’s. That 240m is essential to the preservation of Falmer as a distinct community with it’s own language and currency.
16) We’d be f***ed after Prescott turns us down so we wouldn’t waste his or anyone else’s time with planning applications for a while. Around 2010 we might like to apply for Shoreham Harbour because a road might have been built by then. Alternatively we might like to build a stadium on the site of Brighton station carpark (the one that’s much smaller than Falmer) that is if Sainsburys haven’t built a supermarker there yet.
17) Actually Sheepcote Valley might not be a bad idea for us plebs. It’s pretty grotty and it’s well out of the way of good people like the Falmer residents and, well, himself.
18) He thinks we’ve got a plan B up our sleeves due to the club making mention of having to look for other sites if Falmer is rejected.
19) He’s an utter CHIZLA.

 

[Ex Shelton Seagull]

Oh and,
20) The lights would be turned on during the afternoon in the winter. You might be able to some of the glare from the top window of a house in Falmer if you stand on your tip-toes and look really hard. This would be so bad it might cause people to try and top themselves.
21) He really is an absolute, total, total, complete and utter BATTYMAN.

 

[CHAPPERS]

I've just read all of that.

He is trying to kill our club isn't he.

 

[Behind Enemy Lines]

To Lord Bracknell.

Thanks very much for your replies in the first page of the thread. Very helpful.

 

[Lammy]

He seems to think that everyone will arrive by the same mode of transport.

Brighton Station has no access by car. Unless he wants to bring Brighton city centre to a stand still every other week!

Waterhall is the only other site that has good roas links and the potential for good rail access.

Falmer ALREADY has a dual carrage way for access (so not very pretty) and a station already built!

What he also fails to grasp is the fact that this totally rural site already has TWO universities, a racket club and a ruddy great dual carrageway going through it!

 

[Ex Shelton Seagull]

I'll second the praise of Lord B. It's always useful in these situations to have someone fluent in officialspeak.

 

[tedebear]

I'm trawling through it on the council site - I am gobsmacked at the names of people and companies who are appearing on their with objections.....truly horrified at their naievity!!

 

[Storer68]

having read it all, my only conclusion is that he just doesn't want any development on the Village Way site at all regardless of whether it is a football stadium or a pig-sty.

The Council must object to the report - it is so obvioulsy flawed in its anaylsis of the issues considered that it makes one wonder whether the guy was listening when people were putting their cases.

 

[brighton rock]

it reads amost as one sided as the hutton report,another fudged report just hope the main man sticks it in the bin where it should be?

 

[The Large One]

It is only a recommendation to the council, one which they will almost certainly reject.

Assuming it's written correctly, the stadium inquiry will flatly contradict Hoile's report. Hoile clearly has not taken everything into consideration. He has basically rejected the importance of football to the community, and this is not only against the spirit of government policy, individual ministers and civil servants will not like it either.

I am confident Prescott will see through what Hoile has said. Even if the Stadium Inquiry reaches the same conclusion as Hoile (unlikely), Prescott can still give it a thumbs up.

 

[Jim D]

Having read through all that and tried to absorb the points he made, it seems to me that the main issue is over the AONB.

His argument is that, whatever we say now, the Village Way North site is too small to hold all the facilities we want to include. Therefore, at some time in the near future, we'll come back demanding more space. At that time we'll point out that a precedent was set earlier (presumably by him) of building within the AONB - and that we should be able to claim the extra land and build on it.

Surely this is conjecture? Nobody could say, with any certainty, what will happen in the future. Furthermore, our submitted plans obviously clearly show how all of these facilities can be accommodated within the VWN site?

If JP rejects the application on that basis then I'd say we have good grounds to appeal.

 

[Keith B Wetherill]

City Plan Report

If somebody knows this guy's address (not office) we can flood his mailbox with our views because clearly he doesn't have a clue about the feelings and aspirations of REAL football fans.Of course any mail MUST NOT be abusive.. But he could get enough letters to make him think,clearly he can't hear if indeed he did attend all the hearing ,which frankly I don't believe..

 

[Withnail]

What is actually known about this bloke? What is is history? Could it be that there is some sort of hidden agenda? Maybe he has family or a friends living in Falmer. If anyone knows or can find out anything it could be very helpful.

 

[Behind Enemy Lines]

It is only a recommendation to the council, one which they will almost certainly reject.

Assuming it's written correctly, the stadium inquiry will flatly contradict Hoile's report. Hoile clearly has not taken everything into consideration. He has basically rejected the importance of football to the community, and this is not only against the spirit of government policy, individual ministers and civil servants will not like it either.

I am confident Prescott will see through what Hoile has said. Even if the Stadium Inquiry reaches the same conclusion as Hoile (unlikely), Prescott can still give it a thumbs up.

I hope you're right The Large One but if Collyer follows suit and rejects Falmer, you'd have to be a brave man to think Prescott would not be inclined to go with them. Even if he was to give Falmer the green light, the NIMBY's would have grounds to go to judicial review.

 

[perseus]

Local Plans Information page.

http://www.planningportal.gov.uk/wp...select_document_id=1011888236118&lpaCode=null

or

http://tinyurl.com/2cvat

It is always important what is in the Local Plan as the Planning Office can turn around and say No if the plan isn't.

If the Planning Office say Yes, and important people object and a scheme is not in the Local Plan, a Public Inquiry is inevitable.
So this is why a Public Inquiry was inevitable for Falmer.

Prescott's Falmer decision is based on the first plan, so in my chronological way of thinking, the new Local Plan is not important as we dealing with an amendment to the old Local Plan.

Hindsight says it might have been better if local people had written to the Local Plan consultancy supporting the change of zoning for Village Way North from University buildings to Community Sports facilities.

It makes me wonder why Brighton Planning did not make this clear to the Inspector as well. I understand (from Lord Bracknell) that C Hoile was at the Public Inquiry. What I do not understand is whether or not this information was allowed to influence his recommendation on the Local Plan?

It depends how you think the system works. If like me, think the powers that be (not Hoile) like the plan they will give it a go ahead and if they don't they will kybosh it, all the details are just the excuse thought up afterwards.

This cynical view ignores "sacred cows" like AONBs. The Government does not like to approve any plans in an AONB, which I assume is because if they did, every single farmer would put up Planning Appliations for Little Chefs all over the countryside and to allow any development would set a precedent. This is why Village Way South was veteoed at a guess (being the other side of the invisible AONB line).

To my mind, it is not whether the AONB is a decent piece of land (there are plenty of eyesores that are AONBs and plenty of non-AONBs that are decent areas of countryside) or not, but because of the arbitary AONB lines that were drawn before most supporters can remember (were born).

All this would have been known to the Albion before they started the whole Falmer process.

 

[Storer68]

He can, and has in the past, rejected Inspector's reports where he, or the officials writing the reply on his behalf, have disagreed with the Inspector's anaylsis.

So all is not lost yet - but we need to convince him

 

[Lord Bracknell]

On the matter of the size of the site ...

Bear in mind the site that was subject to the Community Stadium policy in the draft local plan is the undeveloped field at Village Way North, it is hardly surprising that the Report considers it to be too small for the stadium.

The Planning Application is for a stadium that uses the field AND a substantial area currently occupied by University buildings.

Taken as a whole, that site IS big enough for a stadium.

Oh - and one more point - there is NO proposal for a Sports Hall on the site. Why Mr Hoile thinks he should comment on this is a complete mystery.

... but not the only mystery.

 

[Kalimantan Gull]

Hoiles report covers alternative sites, conservation issues, traffic issues, local villagers concerns, noise and light pollution, finance and the business plan, future expansion possibilities etc etc. Is there anything left for Collyer to talk about? What was the point of the specific public enquiry into Falmer if all the issues are being discussed by someone else in a report of a separate enquiry? One could surmise that he is going into such detail because he feels strongly about this and he thinks Collyer will go the other way, but perhaps that is grasping at straws.

 

[Easy 10]

On the matter of the size of the site ...

Bear in mind the site that was subject to the Community Stadium policy in the draft local plan is the undeveloped field at Village Way North, it is hardly surprising that the Report considers it to be too small for the stadium.

The Planning Application is for a stadium that uses the field AND a substantial area currently occupied by University buildings.

Taken as a whole, that site IS big enough for a stadium.

Oh - and one more point - there is NO proposal for a Sports Hall on the site. Why Mr Hoile thinks he should comment on this is a complete mystery.

... but not the only mystery.

Lord B, I really do wish you could be standing over Prescotts shoulder as he considers all this. How can we be sure this is going to get a fair hearing, with so much misleading crap floating around within these bureau-speak reports ?

I find it profoundly disturbing how a (supposedly) professional planning inspector can come to these conclusions following the Enquiry.

 

[Easy 10]

Ok, here’s what it looks like to me.
1) The stadium will be noisy. He makes no mention of how often the noise would occur. Accoridng to him the noise would be permanent and would occur constantly throughout the year.
2) Even though you can’t see the stadium from Falmer village it would still ruin the visual effect of Falmer village.
3) The Brighton plan of 1995 makes no mention of any sports development, therefore no sports development should ever take place on the site. He REALLY likes EP7 in the plan of 1995.
4) Our little provincial club is not worthy of any land here.
5) Brighton University isn’t much cop either.
6) Brighton station carpark is currently being proposed for development. IF this falls through then he thinks we could move here despite the fact that the site is smaller than Falmer. He doesn’t mention how a stadium could be built here.
7) Withdean’s alright for us. It’s a bit poky but we’re only a “provincial” club, right? The club and the council would be pretty pissed off about having to play here for a long time but they’d get over it. He doesn’t think that we’d ever get kicked out of Withdean. After all we can get a capacity of nearly 9,000 which is more than enough for proles like us.
8) He recommends Toads Hole Valley and then says we can’t play there because he thinks an industrial estate would be a better addition to the local area.
9) Sheepcote Valley is a bit of a shit hole really, so it’s suitable for us. We could hide the stadium away so it couldn’t offend peoples eyes. There’s a few problems (no real road access, no train station nearby, drainage) but he can’t really be arsed to go into those at the present time. Besides, it’s the clubs fault for not providing him with a detailed financial plan for developing a site they’d rejected a number of years earlier.
10) Downland is downland. As far as he’s concerned Village Way North is the same as Devil’s Dyke and should be treated as such. The A27, university buildings, railway line and station don’t effect this one bit.
11) If you stand on a hill you can see the stadium. That’s bad.
12) The site is too small to fit a stadium, sports hall and laboratory into. If you wanted to fit them in you’d have to raise the stadium up and that’s bad news. You would be able to see it from the hill even if it was half buried. God knows the effect it would have on walkers eyes if it was raised up a bit.
13) He doesn’t bother looking at out finances or our financial proposals because he’s heard off the TV that Leeds are in the shit so therefore we must be too. Other football teams are in financial trouble therefore so are we. He doesn’t mention the financial plan because he’s just heard that Livingston are going into administration so therefore our plan (the one that’s been approved by the council) must be bollocks.
14) The financial plan he hasn’t looked at won’t cover the cost so we’d try and get a retail park built next to the stadium to fund its construction. He then thinks we might be successful if we get Falmer built, so therefore we’d try and increase capacity. Good to see he realises that Falmer is the key to our success.
15) After all this unpleasantness is over he wants the council to promise that they’ll never, never, never, try and build anything at Falmer EVER again. The naughty so and so’s. That 240m is essential to the preservation of Falmer as a distinct community with it’s own language and currency.
16) We’d be f***ed after Prescott turns us down so we wouldn’t waste his or anyone else’s time with planning applications for a while. Around 2010 we might like to apply for Shoreham Harbour because a road might have been built by then. Alternatively we might like to build a stadium on the site of Brighton station carpark (the one that’s much smaller than Falmer) that is if Sainsburys haven’t built a supermarker there yet.
17) Actually Sheepcote Valley might not be a bad idea for us plebs. It’s pretty grotty and it’s well out of the way of good people like the Falmer residents and, well, himself.
18) He thinks we’ve got a plan B up our sleeves due to the club making mention of having to look for other sites if Falmer is rejected.
19) He’s an utter CHIZLA.

I just LOVE this post Ex Shelton Seagull.
Dryly humourous and cuttingly accurate. If Falmer gets the green light and we can look back at all this and laugh, and then this thread, and posts like this, is NSC Gold material.

If the unthinkable happens though, I don't think I could bear to revisit these threads...