By Martin Perry, Stadium Project Manager

This is my first stadium blog for some time. There has been a long Christmas break and, as always, we have been extremely busy on the activities that go to make up the stadium project.

Nonetheless I am delighted to report that the start to work on the stadium, on site at Falmer, is all going according to plan. We have had no hitches, hold ups or problems - apart from of course, the chairman's penalty at the groundbreaking ceremony! (But we won't go into that now.)

The archeologists are close to finishing their work on the Village Way site north of the road and have removed the significant artefacts found. The site is now almost completely clear for work. There is still a small amount of archeology work to be done on the south side of Village Way, but we don't expect this to cause any problems.

We are now finalising the legal agreements with both the City Council and the University of Brighton and the council is taking the lease for formal approval by the cabinet this Thursday. This is a major step forward for the club and providing it is approved, a major show of support by the council for the project.

Meanwhile, the council are proposing to take our housekeeping planning application to Planning Committee in February, which is another vital step in the process. If any of our fans haven't yet written in support of the application, I would like to ask them to do so now. Don't leave it any longer time is very short!

We are confident the application will be approved, but let's not leave anything to chance - so if you haven't written yet, and plan to do so, please aim to get your letter in by the end of January.

You can write in support of the 'housekeeping' planning application by sending a letter to Brighton & Hove City Council (reference number Planning Application Number is BH2008/02732). Click here for more information.

Blog Nine: Has Work Started?
Blog Eight: Stadium Funding
Blog Seven: New Application
Blog Six: Good News!
Blog Five: Still on Target
Blog Four: Road to Falmer!
Blog Three: Richard Hebberd
Blog Two: City College & Albion
Blog One: Planning, funding & legal update