For many years, both Brighton Council and Hove Borough Council took advantage of public patience and good will. Residents believed both the Brighton Centre and King Alfred Leisure Centre were being deliberately run down ahead of planned demolition and prestige redevelopment.

Fantasies of the big time hallmarked the boom-time era post 2000, where it would be off with the old and in with the “designer starchitecture” new that would “put Brighton and Hove on the map”.

Now the boom is bust and public debt is terrifyingly deep and threatening, from Government all the way down through our local councils to individual pockets. We must, of course, work for and expect Britain to survive and not go bankrupt but the Government is revising its figures downward at every turn and it is only prudent for Brighton and Hove City Council itself to make do and mend at this time.

New facades for perfectly serviceable buildings such as the King Alfred and Brighton Centre should be about as ambitious as anyone gets for the next 15 years at least while the economy slowly repairs itself. Where is the crystal ball you can rely on that says the Brighton Centre can definitely be demolished in only a couple of years time (or even ten) and replaced by a sustainable new complex?

I urge the council to seriously consider redesigned facade makeovers for both the King Alfred and Brighton Centre, over and above maintenance and repair, and to scrap ideas of demolition of either for the forseeable future.

Valerie Paynter
saveHOVE, PO Box 521, Hove