With the evidence gathering completed, most of the regular veterans of the Inquiry gathered on Friday morning to hear the first of the Closing Submissions.

This is an important new phase, the last opportunity for each of the main parties to sum up their own case and comment on what other people have said. And they get the privilege of doing this without being interrupted, unless it is on point of law.

Hazel McKay, for the Regency Society of Brighton and Hove, was the first to go. Unfortunately, she’d not been told that Falmer Parish Council had slipped down the running order. She therefore arrived late, allowing the waiting lawyers time for a useful discussion with Inspector David Brier about the arrangements for the major parties to exchange Closing Submissions by e-mail. 

For the first time, there could have been a difference of opinion between the Albion and the City Council, but this was happily resolved when Mary Macpherson, lawyer for the Council, accepted that her desire for all closing statements to be circulated in advance did have one drawback. People might change their statements. 

“If they see ours and change theirs, we won’t then have seen theirs”. Yes. Mary was doing her best. “My instructions are, and it’s on my advice that these are my instructions”, she continued. Or, rather, she petered out, as Ms McKay walked into the chamber. “This needs some more thought”, said Mr Brier, wisely. Perhaps it simply needed Hazel McKay to have arrived on time.

Getting straight into her Closing Submission, Ms McKay set out the reasons that the Regency Society opposed a stadium at Falmer. We heard all the familiar arguments about how a stadium in an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty was incompatible with protecting a nationally designated landscape and its scenic beauty. An image of Brighton University campus flashed through my mind, which wouldn’t disappear, as Ms McKay moved on to talk about the conservation of wildlife and the opportunities for rambling in the open countryside. Perhaps Hazel was getting confused with somewhere else.

It seemed not. In fact, she was simply reasserting the conclusions of Inspector Collyer and inviting the new Inspector to agree with them. 

The Regency Society believed that Sheepcote Valley (now suddenly re-named Blackrock Valley by Ms McKay) or Shoreham Harbour would be better stadium sites. Failing either of those sites, redeveloping Withdean for 14,000 spectators would do. The cost of the development should not be the driving force for the decision.

Hold on, hadn’t John Prescott asked the Inquiry to look at affordability and capacity for 22,000? Perhaps Hazel was getting confused again.

We then heard the Regency Society’s views on transport. Ms McKay quoted selectively from the evidence that had been put before the Inquiry. She liked the idea that getting to Falmer by train would be inconvenient if people had to change trains at Brighton or hop off a bus and on to a train to complete their journey – an inconvenience that I’m sure wouldn’t put me off. 

Sheepcote (or Blackrock) Valley and Shoreham Harbour could be well served if the City Council adopted an “integrated sustainable transportation strategy”. Personally, I’d be happy with a bus or train. Maybe I’m the one who is getting confused.

The final theme of the Regency Society case was the need for a “prudent use of scarce land resources”. We all know that it is Brighton’s geography that has created the problem of finding a stadium site. Suitable land is in short supply. Returning to the theme of Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty, which – if it mattered so much to John Prescott, would have meant that we’d already have had a “No” decision – Ms McKay concluded with the thought that “it is a disgrace that the City Council has promoted the use of that precious resource for development of a football stadium”.

My confusion suddenly lifted. Not it’s not, Hazel. It’s a disgrace that the Albion have had to wait so long. John Prescott didn’t accept your argument after the first Inquiry. There’s no need for him to accept it now. We will get a stadium at Falmer, because no-one has made a credible case for anywhere else.