"Further to my e-mail yesterday, Mr Dowd has been in contact with Yvonne Leslie of Southern Trains, who has confirmed the the gate on platform 2 will remain open whilst trains are running so it will not be closed at 8.00pm.
Mr Dowd hopes that this is helpful and he will monitor the situation. If you have any further concerns please do not hesitate to contact us again."
So if it's closed we now know to chase Yvonne Leslie at Southern!
Hopefully that's the end of the saga now...