What a fabulous summer’s day Bank Holiday Monday gave us – perfect for leaving behind the broiling lobsters on overcrowded beaches and heading for the lungs of the city – our wonderful parks.

Hove Park, rightly awarded a Green Flag for excellence, was crowded with families. Excited children waited in a long line for a ride on the park’s famous miniature railway.

How perverse it seems, then, that this much-loved attraction, run and maintained by dedicated volunteers for decades without the help of public finance, and an intrinsic feature of Hove Park, should be threatened by plans now in front of the council. The miniature railway runs alongside the council’s parks department depot. The proposal is to replace the depot with a three-storey bilingual English/Spanish primary school for 630 pupils on this highly restricted acreage. Aside from the threat to established wildlife and the inevitable felling of multiple trees, the site – according to the plan drawing – would only provide a handkerchief-sized amount of outdoor space.

Presumably, that is why the school has factored in direct access to the park, crossing a section of land where the rail track now runs, so the park could be used for the recreation areas the school will patently lack. The result would be the wrecking of the miniature railway in its present form.

Not to mention compromising the Green Flag status. The assumption that Hove Park, maintained by council tax payers, would be available for use as of right would effectively render a significant chunk of the park out of bounds to the general public, not only on weekdays but during school weekend activities. I can’t imagine a minority-run Green council or any sensible ward councillors could possibly countenance this opportunistic land-grab. Councillors must be aware they hold public spaces in trust for the enjoyment of present and future generations.

Or are they? It appears surveyors have been around taking measurements. A done deal? Surely not.

G Walsh, Orchard Gardens, Hove