By Martin Perry, Stadium Project Manager

Our fans and the regular readers of this blog will not have been as "shocked" as the Argus seems to be about the "Housekeeping" planning application we have just submitted to update the changes to the stadium.

We told fans that we would have to do this at the Town Hall meeting in April and therefore none of it should come as a surprise.

Our opponents delayed the stadium for five years from the date when the city council were minded to give us planning permission and in that time there have been major changes in the law relating to such things such as access for disabled people and safety regulations.

And of course, there is such a thing as inflation that we have had to deal with. The cost of raw materials - and steel in particular - has doubled in price.

Let's correct some of the facts. First of all the principles established at the public inquiry are unchanged:

- The siting location and orientation of the stadium is unchanged
- The overall footprint of the stadium is unchanged
- The capacity - 22,500 - is unchanged
- The height of the roof and the arch is unchanged
- The transportation strategy is unchanged
- The Environmental impact is unchanged

The paper reports the stadium will be 50 per cent bigger. An ambiguous statement, when you consider the site's footprint remains the same, and the height of the stadium is unaltered.

However, changes in legislation have resulted in a huge increase in the space needed for circulation - including the concourse areas - and this means that internally the stadium has been completely redesigned, but on the same footprint.

The report states the cost of the stadium will rise by £10m to £60m and this is correct. That - along with the need for the 'house-keeping' application - are both legacies of the ten-year battle for planning permission.

Two important factors for fans are that this application does not have to be approved for us to begin work on site. We are scheduled to start in December and we are still on track for that.

Secondly, because the changes do not affect the overall size of the site, the location, the principle or the capacity, there is no chance this application will be called in by the government.

We expect the application to be heard by the council in December or January, and are confident it will be approved.

In the meantime, the last fortnight has seen us make significant progress with both the council and the University of Brighton on the legal agreements, and in negotiations with the contractors. I therefore expect to announce our preferred choice for contractor very soon.

Busy times.

View a full-size version of the new image.

Week Six: Good News!
Week Five: Still on Target
Week Four: Road to Falmer!
Week Three: Richard Hebberd
Week Two: City College & Albion
Week One: Planning, funding & legal update