Brighton and Hove Albion FC have been given the go-ahead to build a new stadium in Falmer, after nine years of waiting for approval.
They were in the same position two years ago, when John Prescott made the same decision, but several errors in the wording of the approval allowed the Lewes District Council to launch an appeal, which was upheld after a judicial review.
The council have six weeks to launch another appeal to the decision, so the club’s staff and supporters are keeping their cava in the fridge, for the time being.
Whether this is good news or bad news pretty much depends on whether or not you are a Brighton and Hove Albion fan. The football club certainly deserves a home after a period of ten years of vagabonding following the outrageous sale of the Goldstone Ground by asset strippers posing as club directors in 1997.
But it is not good news for the people of Falmer, whose village has already been devastated by the building of the A27 through the middle of it, and changed for good by the siting of the University of Sussex on its fringes.
Neither is it good news for Lewes FC, whose recent rise in status and attendances might well be halted by the siting of a much bigger club four miles down the road.
And it is not necessarily good news for Lewes, which potentially faces invasion from away fans before Brighton games. Brighton may be in the third tier of the professional football pyramid, but so are teams of the calibre of Leeds United and Nottingham Forest, who both bring thousands of away fans to their games, who might decide to pay a visit to our town before the game, understanding that the policing is likely to be less stringent in a smaller town.