Week five of the Public Local Inquiry

Week Five begins.

No late start today. Things kicked off at 9.30 instead of the usual 10am for a Monday. This was in order for the second Babcock witness, Dr Riddell, to be finished by 11am on Tuesday.

There followed one and a half hours of 'discussion' about the validity of a batch of late documents that Babcock wanted to submit and some additional material from SNH.

At 11am Babcock's first witness took the stand. He was Dr Brampton of HR Wallingford, who was Babcock's last minute witness on wave modelling. The Inquiry broke for lunch when Dr Brampton was half way through his evidence. (This meant he had to be in 'purdah' - not talking to anyone - until the Inquiry reconvened after lunch). After the afternoon break it was the turn of Dr Riddell. He is the Babcock witness on sediments and dredging. The QC for Babcock embarked on leading his evidence - a procedure that normally lasts around twenty minutes. On this occasion she took two hours. By the time it was finished it was 5.30pm and clearly cross-examination of Dr Riddell couldn't be done today. As he is not available tomorrow, his cross-examination will be continued on Wednesday.

On Tuesday the first witness will be Ted Keegan, who, we believe, will talk about the Environmental Impact Assessment. He will be followed by Robert Bromley who is the Babcock witness for marine ecology.