It has been obvious that we have all the arguments on our side. Labour, for their part, have only said in public, in the words of Cllr Darke, that the plan is ’eminently reasonable’ and, indeed, ‘essential’. They have failed to mention that the plan for this site was to maximise the capital receipt which would mean building student flats that would have given no direct help to the very real housing crisis we have in our city.

We have pushed them to see sense — to realise that building on this car-park would be a disaster for the local community and even attempting to do it would be a costly fight Labour would lose. They have refused to back down — up to now.

The good news is that, finally, Labour have backed down on their hare-brained scheme. We understand that the planners have recommended that the car-park is crossed off the list of building sites. After an internal fight, Labour have decided not to over-rule the Council’s officers.

But it’s not over yet. There is no official decision — that should come on 19th December at a meeting of the full Council. So, we need to keep up the pressure.

And we will confirm the outcome at our next Ward Focus Meeting on 20th December: join us there.