After a very long weekend break, the Inquiry resumed on Tuesday with the first proper appearance of the representatives of J W Cook Estates Ltd, and Pecla Investments Ltd, the owners of Toads Hole Valley. They had been seen early on, occupying seats in the public gallery, but had been absent from the main arena and, until today, hadn’t uttered a word.

After a few introductory words from their legal representative, Mr Blaney, their first key witness, Robert Stiles, Director of Stiles Harold Williams, Surveyors and Valuers, took the witness stand.

Mr Stiles was there to demonstrate that acquisition of Toads Hole Valley was a realistic proposition and that a stadium could be built there without incurring unaffordable development costs. As we shall see, he failed.

He did, however, set out the terms on which the Albion might be allowed to move there. A couple of options were on offer. The Club could have the site for a 125 year lease, at a peppercorn rent (plus a premium payment up front of £500,000 a hectare), subject to agreeing to incur all of the development costs, including funding all of the necessary roadworks and other infrastructure costs.

Alternatively, subject to planning permission being given for an adjacent business development and the Albion funding the full infrastructure costs of the whole development, the Club could have 8 hectares of land for a stadium and parking, alongside the business space.

Either of these options, said Mr Stiles, would be cheaper than Falmer.

This looked to be a tremendously attractive deal. Until, under questioning from Jonathan Clay, the details became apparent and the whole argument fell apart.

What was this about Toads Hole Valley being cheaper than Falmer? Where were the figures? Actually, they were on a piece of paper that Mr Stiles had brought with him to the Inquiry this very day. They were different figures from the ones that had been prepared by the Club’s professional cost consultants earlier at the Inquiry. They were different from the figures prepared by Lewes District Council’s cost consultants as well.

In fact, as the details unfolded, it emerged that Mr Stiles’ costings were about £19.4 million less than the costs that Martin Perry had previously put forward. Extraordinary. How come?

Well, for a start, Mr Stiles believed that a stadium and parking would fit on a site of 8 hectares, not the 11 hectares that the Club considered necessary – “a total waste of land”, said Mr Stiles. There would be no community facilities. There was no need for an “iconic” stadium. There would be no protection of the aquifer. Only 700 parking spaces would be needed, not 1,467. The road access costs would be negligible. Off-site road improvements weren’t included. There was no allowance for inflation between now and the construction of the stadium. And although reduced on-site parking was part of Mr Stiles’ proposals, his project costs didn’t include the costs of providing the extra park and ride facilities that he agreed would be necessary.

But, no matter, Mr Stiles considered that his cut-price stadium would be affordable. He even claimed that it would bring public benefits, because not building a stadium in Falmer would “free up land for the University to build on and would free up grants that could be used elsewhere”. Or, to put it another way, the Albion wouldn’t benefit from them. Nor would the people of East Brighton. Marvellous.

It was all very surreal. But nowhere near as surreal as other matters that emerged from the questioning. Why had Mr Stiles only produced his cost estimates today, when the parties to the Inquiry had been asked to exchange evidence in early January? This meant that Martin Perry (whose evidence had already been given) had been denied the opportunity to challenge Mr Stiles’ figures. And why had Cook Estates not challenged Martin Perry’s costings, when they had the chance to do so – either at the Inquiry or through correspondence? “Astonishingly unreasonable behaviour” was Jonathan Clay’s verdict.

The Inspector himself was clearly unhappy. He couldn’t condone the way this evidence had been presented. But he couldn’t do much about it, since the Secretary of State would expect all evidence to be considered.

It was quite apparent that the owners of Toads Hole Valley had an agenda of their own. In whatever version of local planning policy you look at, the adopted Hove Local Plan or the emerging Brighton and Hove Local Plan, the site is heavily protected from development. It is also currently an AONB and not yet ruled out of the National Park.

Mr Stiles claimed he was only motivated by a wish to help the Albion get a stadium. But, to Jonathan Clay, he seemed much more interested in getting a lucrative commercial development for his clients. He had hardly co-operated in pre-Inquiry discussions with the football club. If the site was available, it was only being offered up if current planning policy could be breached. And the figures were being manipulated to suggest that the deal on offer would benefit the Albion financially.

Mr Clay put it succinctly. “Mr Stiles, do you know what the word ‘disingenuous’ means?”

But he wasn’t alone. Robert Stiles was supported by other witnesses. There was a Landscape Architect, with quite different views from the Albion’s witness. There was a Planner, with a very different perspective from the City Council’s planning witness, and his own way of reading between the lines of the Local Plan Inspector’s report.

And there is, we think, a transport witness. But he failed to turn up. Indeed, at 3.55pm, we discovered he can’t even be here tomorrow. Which is unfortunate, since Wednesday is the last available day for him to give evidence. And Mark Leigh, the Albion’s own transport expert, had travelled all the way from Manchester to deal with the issues that are likely to be raised by his evidence.

The Inspector is now very concerned that this will mean that the Inquiry won’t be completed by mid-April. Nobody is happy. The only consolation is that the case for Toads Hole Valley is falling apart.

I was just reminded of Swindon Town taking penalties. We thought they were professionals, but they kept missing the target.