The planning briefs for Ashburton Grove was approved 4-3 the Highbury plan went through 5-0. One councillor (who is in fact the chair of the committee) was unwell and not in attendance.

At a 4 hour meeeting attended by about 200 the plans were discussed at length and the usual issues and arguments were raised by the usual suspects. Probably about 4:1 were speaking against. The Yes! campaign had organised a much stroger presence of favourable local residents than had been at the public meetings.

The Highbury plan went through first. The main issue appeared to be the availability of affordable housing and that this should be on the Highbury sight. Arsenal gave assurances that there would be no building in the area where ashes were buried.

The objectors to Ashburton Grove seem to focus on 2 areas. The change to the Unitary Development Plan (UDP) and transport. The focus on the former seems to be to try to get it stopped at a future public inquiry. There was much discussion of the modal split of getting fans to use public transport/car 80/20. The feasibility studies will look at what needs to be done to get 90/10 and even 100%. Arsenal seem unhappy about this bit and pointed out that they had legal advice that a modal split of 80/20 was not enforceable under planning law. Rather strangely multi-use of the stadium which appeared certain to be thrown out appeared to survive in a limited form although there was talk of restricting the number of football events.

Just before the vote Ken Friar made an impassioned plea for the plans. He gave the impression that the club is quite well progressed in its plans and he confirmed that the stadium will in fact be smaller in density than Old Trafford Wembley and Celtic Park. He also gave assurances on re-locating businesses and talked about more affordable tickets for local residents.

The Comittee seemed in part to be persuaded by the responses to the public consultation which ended up approximately 50% against 40% in favour and 10% undecided with about 700 of the 15,000 council forms being returned. These figures were much less against than most people had anticipated. The main concern is transport. The questions being can people be persuaded to come via public transport and if so can public transport cope.

The club can now put together a full planning application which will come back to the planning committee later in the year. The club's plans have got over a very significant hurdle but there is still some way to go.