This alternative location is unacceptable to the university for several reasons.

It is on land identified in the Local Plan as a contribution to an area of outstanding natural beauty.

In this position a design that might have been made acceptable alongside a main road and a railway line, and partly on brownfield land, would be significantly more obtrusive.

It solves none of the identified problems about traffic circulation to and from the campus.

It places the campus even more directly in a line between the stadium and the point in Falmer at which the majority of the supporters will arrive, and hence will make protection of our everyday activities significantly more difficult.

Finally, it offers none of the protection directly enforceable by a lease of land from the university.

The university will oppose any planning application for the stadium in this new location.

Meanwhile, contrary to the information in the club's "round robin" of July 2, the University of Sussex's car parks will not be available in these circumstances.

The University of Sussex, which has also played a constructive role in the discussions aimed at making the original plans viable, has made it clear that it could not co-operate with a scheme that does not have the full support of the three main parties: Brighton and Hove City Council, Brighton and Hove Albion, and the University of Brighton.

The University of Brighton's Falmer campus is a hive of successful partnership activity in support of the community. More than 1,000 local and regional part-time students study alongside their full-time colleagues in areas such as education, health, and languages.

Key research centres support local projects and local people from the schools and college sector, business and the NHS, including the New Deal for the Community.

In 2003 the Brighton and Sussex Medical School a partnership between the universities of Brighton and Sussex and the local NHS trusts will open, bringing both substantial investment and the prospects of real health gains to the community of Brighton and Hove (Relevant planning applications have recently been submitted by both universities.) A Sports Development Unit, bringing together leading local and regional agencies, was recently opened by Trevor Brooking, chairman of Sport England.

In line with the priorities of the Education Action Zone, further sports and community facilities are planned in partnership with Falmer School and the council. The new student residential village (about to be expanded) is a partnership with London and Quadrant Housing Association.

The Health and Racquet Club is a highly successful public/private partnership achieved on a sensitive site after complex negotiations.

In collaboration with the Brighton and Hove Bus and Coach Company, the university has invested in improvements enabling buses to enter the site for the first time.

On Friday evenings the campus is given over to rehearsals by the eight ensembles of the Brighton Youth Orchestra, which is given both space and administrative support by the university. And so on.

All of these partnerships thrive on the basis of ambition and imagination but also on realism, trust and mutual respect. So what is the present position?

The University of Brighton has not withdrawn from nor itself caused the breakdown of negotiations based on the proposition made by the council for a community stadium at Falmer.

It has contributed openly, constructively and flexibly to these negotiations. For example, it has been prepared to examine a proposition made by the club that students and staff should move into temporary accommodation in order to facilitate earlier release of the land than originally envisaged.

It has incurred very considerable abortive costs in carrying the discussions forward (unlike the club, it has not had any commercial sponsorship of such costs). Its current position is that of a conditional rejection of support for the original proposals for a planning application.

I have tried to set out above the main areas in which conditions would have to be met in order to win its support.

The university does not believe the club's alternative location is tenable, again for reasons set out above. In particular, I would urge the council not to undermine its commitment to the environment by amending the Local Plan in the way in which the club has suggested.

To our knowledge, the council has made no such commitment.

The university is prepared to re-enter discussions at any time aimed at trying to find a way forward on the original proposition. In the event that this is not possible, or that the other partners are not willing to return to the table, the university will continue to urge the case for a community stadium in Brighton and Hove.

It may, for example, now be possible both to re-examine previous options and to examine alternative sites within the city, which were not available when the original sequential analysis was performed.

I should be happy to answer any queries you may have about the university's position.