The Albion’s witnesses are putting on a tremendous performance at the Inquiry. Week four – has it really been going on that long? – began with three more of them adding weight to the technical case that will prove that Falmer is the Club’s future.

And it got pretty technical, right from the start. First up was Andrew Colthurst, the expert on noise. He is the man who understands what ‘dBA’ means. It’s something to do with ‘decibels’. Whatever they are.

The rest of us struggled to hear him properly, because we only understand what ‘noise’ is. It’s the racket coming from the generator outside the Town Hall which is powering up the cleaning operation that will make this part of the city centre a joy to look at – once the Inquiry is over.

We did, however, learn something from Mr Colthurst. And that was that the first Inquiry Inspector, John Collyer, plainly didn’t understand his decibels. If he had, he wouldn’t have concluded that a stadium at Toads Hole Valley would have less of a noise impact than Falmer. Hopefully, the data that was provided today will steer the new Inspector away from any temptation to draw more wrong conclusions from the evidence.

Once again, Falmer came out top. In terms of noise impact, Toads Hole Valley is worse, as is Shoreham Harbour. Noise from traffic going home from Sheepcote Valley will severely affect homes in Wilson Avenue. And Withdean would create the worst noise nuisance of all the sites.

Air Quality was the next topic, presented by Mrs Hannah Dalton. She gave a very clear presentation about each of the sites that the Inquiry is considering. Her approach was to take account of existing air quality and then look at short-term effects, like construction work, as well as the long term effects of traffic travelling to and from matches. Her particular concern was not to worsen air quality in those parts of the city where problems exist already.

The conclusion – in terms of the effects on air quality, all sites were ‘acceptable’, but Falmer, Waterhall or Upper Beeding would be best. Withdean and Sheepcote Valley were the worst sites.

All these factors add up to help our case. The technical detail is set out in thick volumes that Inspector Brier no doubt takes back to his hotel room for some light evening reading. What impresses me, though, is that the Club’s witnesses have plainly done the job that they were asked to do – present a professional assessment from an expert’s perspective. They certainly haven’t been paid just to come up with figures that are skewed to support the Falmer case.

Tuesday afternoon was taken up with the evidence of Peter Rainier, the Albion’s planning consultant. His evidence may well turn out to be the most important that is heard at the Inquiry. It is his responsibility to point the Inspector in the direction of all of the relevant policy matters that will decide the outcome.

How do the various sites tie in with local planning policies? Structure Plans? Regional policies? National planning guidance?

He did the now familiar tour of all the sites and found that only one of them was supported in any planning policy as a potential site for a 22,000 seater stadium. But he recognised that this didn’t mean that Falmer was home and dry. The City Council’s Local Plan policy that promotes a community stadium at Falmer was not supported by Inspector Hoile’s report on the Local Plan Inquiry.

Nevertheless, the City Council, as it is entitled to do, had rejected Mr Hoile’s recommendation to abandon that policy. Falmer remained the best site. Beeding Cement Works and Shoreham Airport were too remote and not serious alternatives. Shoreham Harbour was too long term an option, with insuperable access difficulties. The Greyhound Stadium site was too small and Brighton Station was no longer available. Withdean was too small to be a permanent solution.

Waterhall was wholly unacceptable, being north of the A27 and in the proposed National Park. Toads Hole Valley could be considered a development site only in the long term and then only if a business park became a necessity for the city. Sheepcote Valley might be an alternative to Falmer, but only if it was acceptable to impose a significant environmental impact on a large number of local residents and the resultant severe traffic congestion across the city was considered tolerable.

Unsurprisingly, Mr Rainier was subjected to some tricky questioning by the opposition lawyers, who skipped from local to national considerations and back again, as they sought to trip him up. But he proved to be a fleet footed witness who remained standing to the end. Or at least until the end of the day – because he’s back in the witness box on Wednesday for more of the same.