July verdict for Brighton stadium

A letter sent to the club by the Department of Communities and Local Government also included copies of the submissions made by interested parties.

The club will now go through those representations with their legal team before submitting their response.

"We are in the final straight now," chief executive Martin Perry said.

"We have eight weeks to go through the submissions, and then we will respond to the Secretary of State," he told the club's website.

The original decision to grant permission for the 23,000-seater stadium at Falmer, made by Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott in October 2005, was quashed in the High Court due to a clerical error raised by a challenge from the local council.

Ruth Kelly announced last November that the government was to look again at alternative sites - and gave the club and other bodies until 15 February to make representations.

Feasibility studies had been conducted into nine other sites, including the brownfield Sheepcote Valley site.

The Seagulls have been without a permanent home in Brighton since 1997.

After two years groundsharing at Gillingham, they have played at the Withdean athletics stadium since 1999.

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