The fears expressed by Brian Simpson regarding the overwhelming of our human-scaled city with horrific high-rise monstrosities, turning Brighton and Hove into, as he put it, "tomorrow's towerblock nightmare", are spot on (Letters, March 8).

Especially given the tragic history of some tower blocks, illustrated so graphically in a recent TV programme in which residents of a huge 1960s towerblock in London's East End urged that it be blown up - as so many similar monstrosities have been during the past few years.

Adding even more insult to the injury and destruction of our cherished human-scaled seafront, rumours are now flying around that the flats in the gigantic King Alfred and marina towerblocks are already being bought not only as rich Londoners' weekend retreats but by wealthy overseas buyers as investments and holiday homes.

Should we be surprised? Hardly.

So much for the often-belched justification for these monster developments that they will ease the housing crisis for residents of Brighton and Hove. As if any of these faraway buyers will have the slightest interest in the community which their grotesque towers will forever overshadow and ruin. How on earth will their absentee occupation of these mammoth blocks ease the housing crisis in our city?

The artist's sketch of the marina development looks like the Dubai of today - and it will be the Brighton and Hove of tomorrow.

That is, if we continue to permit our elected representatives of all parties to act as agents for the property developers instead of protectors of our community's quality of life and environment. It's time to halt every concrete particle of this madness before we find Brighton and Hove buried under a tsunami of gargantuan slum-rises as the massive mistakes of the 1960s are tragically repeated.

  • D Fischer, Holland Road Hove