Lord Bracknell
On fire
Public Inquiry - Day Nine Report
Tuesday’s session of the Inquiry lasted only three hours. Today we paid the price, as the case for Falmer and Rottingdean Parish Councils was unveiled. It took ten hours. And the Town Hall heating had broken down. A casual observer, wandering into the council chamber in mid afternoon might have thought from the scarves and overcoats on view that people were preparing to go home. They weren’t. They were simply cold. And there were hours still to go.
John Woodruff, landlord of the Swan, had been the first Falmer resident to give evidence. He started just after 10 o’clock and finished five minutes later. He wanted a stadium on a bigger site than Falmer could offer. That was about it. I suppose he also fancied a stadium located some considerable distance from his pub. However, for some reason, he forgot to mention that particular detail.
Next came Peter Hampton, Chairman of Rottingdean Parish Council. He fancied Sheepcote Valley, Toads Hole Valley or Waterhall, in the hope that this would keep traffic out of the narrow streets of Rottingdean village. It crossed my mind that if I lived in Peacehaven, I’d probably drive to Waterhall or Toads Hole Valley by turning right at Rottingdean crossroads and heading for the A27 through those same narrow streets, whilst I’d get to Falmer by driving up Wilson Avenue to the park and ride at the racecourse. But no matter. No-one else seemed to be thinking this, because he wasn’t asked many questions.
In truth, we were all waiting for the main act. Tom Carr, Vice-Chairman of Falmer Parish Council. The man who would take up the next nine and a half hours of our lives.
He started by offering the Inquiry a fourth version of the transport projections for each of the stadium sites. But his approach to transport was rather more imaginative than what we had heard already from the Albion’s professional transport consultant. And it was more imaginative than I guess we’ll get when Lewes District Council’s man gets his chance.
In fact, it really got my imagination going. Particularly when Mr Carr was talking about transport to Upper Beeding Cement Works. What he’d really like is some government funding for an electric light rapid transport system from Shoreham railway station. But he knew in his heart that this was unlikely. So it would have to be buses. Lots of buses.
110 buses, to be precise. The sums all added up. There would be 1,467 car parking spaces at the stadium. With three people in each car, that would allow 4,400 spectators to drive. What about the remaining 17,600? Simple. They could go by bus. With eighty seats on a double decker and each vehicle doing a double run, everyone could get there. And if some people chose to walk, or cycle, or go by taxi, there’d even be a few spare seats available.
Go get a calculator and check out the numbers. While you’re doing that, try not to think what a bus queue of 17,600 people will look like, ten minutes after the final whistle has gone on a wet Tuesday night in February.
And then there’s the question of where we’ll find a bus company with 110 spare vehicles available (with drivers) who are desperate to use this huge fleet on just 23 occasions during the year. OK, 27 if we get a good cup run.
Mr Carr had an anonymous friend, apparently called Angela, who knew about transport and had contacted all the bus and coach companies in Sussex. She had assured him that there would be no problem. Lots of companies wanted to do the work. The Albion had written evidence from the Brighton & Hove Bus Company and from the largest logistics firm in South East England (who specialise in arranging big fleet hire contracts). They had both assured us that those buses simply don’t exist.
Yes they do. No they don’t. The squabble went on throughout the day. A fax was produced by the Albion from one coach company, confirming that they weren’t interested. But Mr Carr insisted that he’d had a chat with the same company and they’d said they had five 53 seater coaches and five 33 seater vehicles available. But I was just thinking ‘Hold on. I thought we needed double deckers with 80 seats’. And those 17,600 people in the bus queue were beginning to prey on my mind.
I suppose it’s easy to scoff at some of the details that come out during this Inquiry. However, Tom Carr was doing his best to steer us away from detail. He took us on a tour through all the alternative sites that Falmer Parish Council favoured. Whenever a question arose, like, for example, exactly where at Shoreham Airport a stadium might be sited, he quibbled. ‘It’s not my job to go into that sort of detail’.
But surely this Inquiry is supposed to answer some serious questions? Can a stadium be built without unacceptable environmental impacts, to mention just one. If Falmer Parish Council think that it’s not their job to say where they’d build it, John Prescott may well think that he’s not getting much help from them.
What is clear, though, is that the Parish Council is working to a quite different timescale from the Club. We want a stadium as soon as possible, because Withdean is hopeless and is preventing the football club from achieving its potential. Falmer Parish Council are content if our search goes on for years.
They argue a case for Shoreham Harbour, in the full knowledge that it could be twenty years before building there might be possible. They know that Adur District Council do not favour Shoreham Airport. But ‘things might change’.
They suggest that we hold out for a big site, with room for lots of enabling development., despite the fact that projects of that scale will take years to put together, because partners will have to be found and complex planning obstacles overcome. But this, apparently, is all for our own good. Because their approach to building a stadium will be ‘more viable’ and the Football Club will reap the commercial benefits of a shared site.
Albion supporters know that this is just not the case. It would be like queuing for a bus in the rain, with 17,000 people in front of us. We’d simply perish.
Tuesday’s session of the Inquiry lasted only three hours. Today we paid the price, as the case for Falmer and Rottingdean Parish Councils was unveiled. It took ten hours. And the Town Hall heating had broken down. A casual observer, wandering into the council chamber in mid afternoon might have thought from the scarves and overcoats on view that people were preparing to go home. They weren’t. They were simply cold. And there were hours still to go.
John Woodruff, landlord of the Swan, had been the first Falmer resident to give evidence. He started just after 10 o’clock and finished five minutes later. He wanted a stadium on a bigger site than Falmer could offer. That was about it. I suppose he also fancied a stadium located some considerable distance from his pub. However, for some reason, he forgot to mention that particular detail.
Next came Peter Hampton, Chairman of Rottingdean Parish Council. He fancied Sheepcote Valley, Toads Hole Valley or Waterhall, in the hope that this would keep traffic out of the narrow streets of Rottingdean village. It crossed my mind that if I lived in Peacehaven, I’d probably drive to Waterhall or Toads Hole Valley by turning right at Rottingdean crossroads and heading for the A27 through those same narrow streets, whilst I’d get to Falmer by driving up Wilson Avenue to the park and ride at the racecourse. But no matter. No-one else seemed to be thinking this, because he wasn’t asked many questions.
In truth, we were all waiting for the main act. Tom Carr, Vice-Chairman of Falmer Parish Council. The man who would take up the next nine and a half hours of our lives.
He started by offering the Inquiry a fourth version of the transport projections for each of the stadium sites. But his approach to transport was rather more imaginative than what we had heard already from the Albion’s professional transport consultant. And it was more imaginative than I guess we’ll get when Lewes District Council’s man gets his chance.
In fact, it really got my imagination going. Particularly when Mr Carr was talking about transport to Upper Beeding Cement Works. What he’d really like is some government funding for an electric light rapid transport system from Shoreham railway station. But he knew in his heart that this was unlikely. So it would have to be buses. Lots of buses.
110 buses, to be precise. The sums all added up. There would be 1,467 car parking spaces at the stadium. With three people in each car, that would allow 4,400 spectators to drive. What about the remaining 17,600? Simple. They could go by bus. With eighty seats on a double decker and each vehicle doing a double run, everyone could get there. And if some people chose to walk, or cycle, or go by taxi, there’d even be a few spare seats available.
Go get a calculator and check out the numbers. While you’re doing that, try not to think what a bus queue of 17,600 people will look like, ten minutes after the final whistle has gone on a wet Tuesday night in February.
And then there’s the question of where we’ll find a bus company with 110 spare vehicles available (with drivers) who are desperate to use this huge fleet on just 23 occasions during the year. OK, 27 if we get a good cup run.
Mr Carr had an anonymous friend, apparently called Angela, who knew about transport and had contacted all the bus and coach companies in Sussex. She had assured him that there would be no problem. Lots of companies wanted to do the work. The Albion had written evidence from the Brighton & Hove Bus Company and from the largest logistics firm in South East England (who specialise in arranging big fleet hire contracts). They had both assured us that those buses simply don’t exist.
Yes they do. No they don’t. The squabble went on throughout the day. A fax was produced by the Albion from one coach company, confirming that they weren’t interested. But Mr Carr insisted that he’d had a chat with the same company and they’d said they had five 53 seater coaches and five 33 seater vehicles available. But I was just thinking ‘Hold on. I thought we needed double deckers with 80 seats’. And those 17,600 people in the bus queue were beginning to prey on my mind.
I suppose it’s easy to scoff at some of the details that come out during this Inquiry. However, Tom Carr was doing his best to steer us away from detail. He took us on a tour through all the alternative sites that Falmer Parish Council favoured. Whenever a question arose, like, for example, exactly where at Shoreham Airport a stadium might be sited, he quibbled. ‘It’s not my job to go into that sort of detail’.
But surely this Inquiry is supposed to answer some serious questions? Can a stadium be built without unacceptable environmental impacts, to mention just one. If Falmer Parish Council think that it’s not their job to say where they’d build it, John Prescott may well think that he’s not getting much help from them.
What is clear, though, is that the Parish Council is working to a quite different timescale from the Club. We want a stadium as soon as possible, because Withdean is hopeless and is preventing the football club from achieving its potential. Falmer Parish Council are content if our search goes on for years.
They argue a case for Shoreham Harbour, in the full knowledge that it could be twenty years before building there might be possible. They know that Adur District Council do not favour Shoreham Airport. But ‘things might change’.
They suggest that we hold out for a big site, with room for lots of enabling development., despite the fact that projects of that scale will take years to put together, because partners will have to be found and complex planning obstacles overcome. But this, apparently, is all for our own good. Because their approach to building a stadium will be ‘more viable’ and the Football Club will reap the commercial benefits of a shared site.
Albion supporters know that this is just not the case. It would be like queuing for a bus in the rain, with 17,000 people in front of us. We’d simply perish.
