The third week of the Public Inquiry came to an earlier end than expected, as a result of the unavoidable absence of one witness and a hasty reshuffle of the programme that will give everyone Friday off.

We heard evidence from four witnesses. The first two, representing the Campaign for the Protection of Rural England, appeared side by side to press the case for Sheepcote Valley, which they described as the ‘least worst alternative site available’.

This came as a surprise to Jonathan Clay, the Albion’s lawyer, who had been under the impression that, only last year, CPRE had supported Brighton and Hove City Council’s policy to resist development in Sheepcote Valley because it was open countryside. That impression had been heightened by the appearance at the Local Plan Inquiry of CPRE’s Richard Allden and Gerald Summerfield to show how keen they were to ensure that no major building would ever spoil the Valley.

Yet here they were today, arguing exactly the opposite – that the Albion should build a stadium in this open countryside, with a hefty chunk of enabling development alongside, to help the viability of the project. It didn’t seem to make sense. Had CPRE members done a u-turn? Certainly not, explained Mr Allden. He is the Campaign’s local committee member with planning responsibilities and that allows him to decide what the organisation should be campaigning for. Or against. As the mood takes him, it would seem, since not even his committee had discussed his representation before he had sent it into the Inquiry.

Hmmm. What it really looked like was that CPRE was against a stadium at Falmer, and that they would twist whichever way they wanted to maintain that stance. They’d been rumbled.

Next came David Bangs, the Citizen Smith of the Friends of Whitehawk Hill. Now, this was a performance. Top quality political ranting against the trashing of the downs by agri-businesses, the City Council’s ‘appalling management’ of Waterhall and the fingering of Sheepcote Valley by ‘conservative conservation groups’. Did he mean CPRE?

His message was clear, if novel. The Albion needed a people’s stadium in an urban location, to ‘affirm the success of the club’. To get it would need political will and mobilisation of our supporters. And the downland at the urban edges of the city needed to be protected.

That meant he was against Falmer. He was against Waterhall and Toads Hole Valley too. And he was especially against a stadium in Sheepcote Valley, which was ‘more important than Beachy Head’ but didn’t enjoy the same protection because it was in Brighton’s East End.

Where was the ideal urban location, then? He had a shortlist of seven sites: the Goldstone Retail Park, the Dolphin Industrial Estate at Kingston Buci, Preston Barracks, Victoria Road Recreation Ground in Portslade, Hove Recreation Ground, Brighton College Sports Ground, and Lower Benfield Valley.

Hmmm, again. Fortunately he’s been too busy regaling the recent National Park Inquiry to work up the details. When the Inspector suggested that he might care to concentrate on the issues raised in the letter from the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister that had set the terms of reference for this Inquiry, he just carried on ranting, until his shock announcement that he had to go and see his mum.

I think the Goldstone Retail Park is safe from further development.

The final witness of the day was Hazel McKay, representing the Regency Society of Brighton and Hove. She is a former Deputy Planning Officer of Adur District Council and a Past President of the Royal Town Planning Institute. She treated us to a seminar on town planning theory.

We were told that dealing with congestion isn’t the same thing as promoting sustainable transport. She speculated about what the phrase ‘community stadium’ really meant. She criticised the methodology that the Albion were using to assess visual impact. And she pitched into traffic engineering as a profession that contributed little of value to the planning process. All very interesting. Maybe.

But she did reveal the favourite stadium option of the Regency Society, which she had worked up with the help of Michael Ray, the former Hove Borough Planning Officer who had recommended that approval be given to the redevelopment of the Goldstone Ground.

They want it to be at Shoreham Harbour. OK, they recognise that the site isn’t available at the moment, and that the Shoreham Port Authority won’t have it. And that Adur District Council are opposed to it. And that the Shoreham Maritime Vision hasn’t got it in its sights. And that everyone says that there will have to be a £150 million road scheme paid for before any development can happen.

But all this can change, apparently. If only the Albion could push itself into leading a new partnership that will bring everyone together with a new vision that will transform the Port of Shoreham.

Since the Albion are still struggling to get the new partnership between Leon Knight and Mark McCammon going full out, I reckon this might be a tall order. But who knows? Maybe one day the Club will realise its destiny and Mark McGhee can be President of the Royal Town Planning Institute.

In the meantime, of course, we’d have to carry on playing at Withdean. For years. And Mark McGhee might end up as League Two Manager of the Month.

I hope not.