And now we wait ....

How many times have we heard from Longshot spokesmen that the Judicial Review brought by Cherkley Campaign Ltd had no merit and would fail?

Strange then then that such a 'meritless case' has taken three days of legal argument in the Royal Courts of Justice and that the judge, Justice Haddon-Cave, has reserved his judgment because, in his words, it is a "serious case" (and, indeed, it is) and he clearly thinks it is going to take some time for him to come to his conclusions and write out his findings and his judgment.

The question of the need for yet another golf course in Surrey has been asked and debated ad nauseam, not only during the Judicial Review, but also during applications for Interim Injunctions and in the local press over the past few months. We learnt today from the Interested Party's (i.e. Longshot's) QC that we have been looking at this in the wrong way: of course we don't need another golf course, but, apparently, we do need a world class golf course superior to any other in the UK!

I guess courses like St Andrews, Gleneagles, Royal County Down, The Belfry, Royal Birkdale, Surrey's own Wentworth or the many other prestigious golf courses all lack something, for the Cherkley course is to be superior to them all. And won't we be lucky to have such a superior course in Mole Valley? Good grief - I just noticed a squadron of pigs flying by.

They've gone. We now wait patiently for the judge's verdict. All who attended the hearings agree that the judge was perceptive and has taken great pains to get a grip of the case and that, whatever the verdict is, we can be confident that it will have been properly and fairly arrived at.