By Martin Perry, Stadium Project Manager

Last Saturday The Sun ran a story saying the club's stadium project had been delayed for a year because of funding issues. Those of you who have followed the story will know that this is not the reason for the delay.

It has been caused by the time it will take to get our planning application for the stadium changes required by new legislation cleared, and the need to minimise the disruption to the University of Brighton when we take possession of their land.

With regard to the club's funding plan, if I could divulge the information it would set a lot of minds at rest, but at the present time it is too commercially sensitive.

We are in negotiations with a number of potential funding partners and we simply cannot commit this information to the public domain in the middle of these discussions.

Last week BBC South East reported that the money was not in place. Strictly speaking they were correct, the money isn't just sitting there, buried in the bottom of Dick Knight's garden as one caller to the fans' phone-in suggested.

But importantly, we do not need it at present, so this is another non-story by the BBC. Why can't they get behind the stadium? It is not just our new home; it will bring huge economic and social benefits to the area and they just can't see it.

What we do have in place is a very strong business plan, which will give us full access to the required funding. The plan does include a mortgage, but the borrowing is at a level which is affordable and realistic even in the current extraordinary conditions in the financial markets.

Even in these difficult times deals are being completed - the refinancing of Wembley was completed last week and there is another stadium deal that is about to close. We remain totally confident about the funding and are finalising the legal agreements that we need to be able to start in December.

Next Page: Argus Letters: Martin's response