Having read the article about the proposed Falmer football stadium, I take issue with the claim it is "supported by virtually everyone in the county" (The Argus, December 2).
Firstly, I doubt if many football-supporting men - less than half the population to start with - in this part of West Sussex are concerned. Most seem to support Portsmouth rather than Brighton and Hove Albion.
Secondly, the three brave MPs quoted each obtained only between 35 and 39 per cent of the vote in their respective seats in the last General Election and can't, therefore, claim to speak for the majority of their constituents.
And many of those would have voted for the pro-conservation Green Party.
Given the threats by Albion supporters to vote en-masse against them, perhaps MPs Barlow, Lepper and Turner have decided it serves their electoral interests to keep these vocal lobbyists in the Labour camp by
campaigning on their behalf - and by orchestrating a Commons' Early-Day Motion in support of the proposed stadium.
Also to be condemned is their ill-tempered attack on Lewes District Council for deciding to challenge John Prescott's legally-dubious decision in favour of the stadium.
At least half the proposed stadium site lies within Lewes district (as does Falmer village), so the district council most certainly has locus standi to challenge a decision which arguably breaks EU, if not UK, environmental protection law.
This decision was evidently reached after a most disgraceful - not to say, intimidatory - lobbying campaign by Albion supporters.
What other private organisation, having sold off its property at a loss, should then be allowed to help itself to previously publicly- accessible land (bordering a proposed national park in one of the most important landscapes in England), for reasons essentially of its own profit?
As I understand the site is owned by Brighton University, perhaps its graduate members - many of whom, I imagine, would support Greenpeace or the Green Party - should be allowed to vote on the sale.
-P Carder, Campaign for the Protection of Rural England, Arun District
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