Band together and be proud of new projects

It welcomed the fantastic Royal Pavilion and Britain’s first pleasure pier – the Chain Pier. Later it hosted the beautiful West Pier and the gaudy Palace Pier.

Brighton’s rail link to London took the difficult but direct route rather than the easy but slower option through Shoreham and Horsham.

The town was quick to see the advantages of motoring and still celebrates it annually with the Veteran Car Run.

It built Europe’s largest marina and pioneered the Brighton Centre for conferences. It established one of the early red brick universities at Falmer.

But that tolerant town now seems to have become a carping city. There are still great achievements in Brighton and Hove but all too often they are greeted with a surly cynicism rather than inspiring optimism.

So if I praise Sussex and Brighton Universities for having brought flair and energy to the resort, I am all too often greeted with grumbles about how students have taken over housing and pushed out deserving local people.

I have welcomed the new development at the marina as a serious attempt to make the harbour attractive and architecturally interesting but all too often the reaction is the buildings will be higher than the cliffs at the back.

The i360 observation tower now nearing completion will be a unique attraction that should bring in millions of visitors and revitalise a fading section of the seafront.

Yet the main reaction I hear is that public money has been wasted on an ugly pole that can be seen from every corner of the city.

I am not saying every new building should be welcomed uncritically or that there are not downsides to some otherwise welcome trends.

The Van Alen building in Marine Parade was at first rejected by planners which inspired developers to come back with a better scheme.

Much the same may happen with the hotel Brighton and Hove Albion has proposed for a site near the Amex community stadium.

Flats intended to finance the new King Alfred leisure centre in Hove will surely soon have a better design than the one presented to the public a couple of months ago.

Most people will be glad that plans for an underground car park at Brunswick Square in Hove were rejected and that Sir Herbert Carden’s grandiose scheme for a boulevard along Kings Road never gained acceptance.

But when the arguing is over, Brighton and Hove people should band together and be proud of projects such as the i360 instead of being mean minded and miserable about them.

They should follow the lead set many years ago by the maverick Tory councillor Danny Sheldon.

He opposed the building of Brighton Marina all the way through a lengthy planning process with a beguiling mixture of determination and fervour.

But when he had finally lost, Danny Sheldon said that now there was to be a marina he would try and ensure it was the best one in Britain.

The current criticism of almost every project is dispiriting and unworthy of Brighton. At its worst it could put off people choosing the city for exciting schemes.

Had they been around earlier, the moaners would never have welcomed such a bold development as the Aquarium with the largest fish tank in the world. They would have scoffed at the magnificent Madeira Terraces.

As for the Royal Pavilion, the very symbol of Brighton, they would have ridiculed its absurdities, abhorred its extravagance and moaned it was not in keeping with the area.

Muhammad Ali Muhammad Ali

When I was a sports editor many moons ago I gained the greatest pleasure from boxing.

Nothing else delivered the excitement of two men offering controlled but savage aggression against each other.

We reporters were so close to the action that sometime we would be splattered by blood and sweat from the ring.

But when I saw retired boxers like Alf Mancini, punch drunk and destined for a premature death through too many blows to the head, I knew there was a terrible price to be paid by many fighters for the pleasure they had given to spectators.

The most exciting boxer of them all was Muhammad Ali. He was fast on his feet, stronger than any ox, politically courageous and cheeky to the point of being brazen.

But the noble art that made him the most famous man in the world has also now deprived him of both his speech and speed. As an exhibition opens in London to celebrate his unique gifts, we should make sure no one else suffers from the sport.

It was wonderful watching Ali and his great rivals exchange brutal blows but unacceptable that they should suffer disabling and sometimes fatal head injuries.