Sheepcote Valley cannot be developed for anything except maybe small buildings around its rim. It would be pretty impossible, certainly wholly impractical, to create the Albion's new stadium there.

I thought this was common knowledge and someone must have told that planning inspector so. However, in The Argus article on Tuesday, the reasons against Sheepcote given by MPs and others did not include this fundamental one.

Therefore could someone please pass this vital bit of information to John Prescott. I tried ages ago but got the standard letter back.

In the Eighties I was architect for a developer hoping to create an artificial ski and leisure centre in Sheepcote Valley. The development was abandoned because a detailed land survey carried out for our developer showed that the Valley - which has been used for waste tipping since early in the 20th Century - is too unstable and possibly too poisonous to support development.

Do not take fright if you live locally, though. It is fine as long as no-one attempts to build a stadium or similar that would weigh it down with concrete and seal it off from the open air.

Starting in the Thirties, maybe even before, the valley was deeply tipped without proper compaction or record of contents. There is a farm down there somewhere, ordnance from two world wars and the detritus from decades of Brighton's residents.

The survey concluded that the latest capping technology could not make it feasible to put down foundations or seal it for building to current standards. Now the safety standards are higher still.

I was present when a JCB dug a five-metre test hole. Once through the crust, there was no sign of a firm base within any practical depth - some ash, old timbers and rusty metal crumbled inwards and collapsed.

Any further trial holes were considered an unsafe proposition.

At the bottom end of Sheepcote Valley there are possibilities for foundations but here there are equal hazards from unknown leachates; they are all right when allowed to seep away but make major building work out of the question.

Since this survey, Southern Water used the valley to get rid of the spoil from the beach stormwater/sewage tunnel and in doing so upgraded safety measures such as methane test points, cappings and similar.

However, this will not have changed its suitability for building.

Southern Water must have similar survey data for the valley.

The planning officer who dealt with our leisure development

proposal must also recall this. He is now chief executive at Southern Region. Perhaps he could get through to Mr Prescott?

All the best to the Albion and a new stadium at Falmer.

Frances Hunt, RIBA

-Clifton Road, Brighton