At the risk of turning your letters pages into a debating platform between myself and Chris Bell, I feel that I must comment on his picture of the A27, which was published on October 19.

It reinforces my opinion that if you took most pro-Falmer campaigners to Falmer and asked them to point to where they thought the stadium complex would be built, the vast majority would not know.

Very few would consider the visual or environmental impact it would have upon the surrounding countryside. According to a plan of the proposed complex, as presented to the public enquiry, the corner of the stadium is positioned close to the railway line.

However, that is not the whole story. In order for this stadium complex to function, it would need an infrastructure requiring much more land.

This extra land is designated at the moment as a car park. This particular piece of land is not, as one of your correspondents described it, "a scruffy piece of land by the station".

It is, in fact, a piece of prime arable farm land which, as you can see from this picture, was used this spring for growing

rape seed.

This greenfield site is an area of outstanding natural beauty and is included in the strategic plan for the South Downs National Park.

To turn it into a car park for a football stadium would be sacrilege. The last thing the South Downs needs is another car park.

Don McBeth

-Brighton