How disappointed I am in all three proposals for the King Alfred site in Hove.

All these buildings are monumental in size and so ostentatiously overdesigned they seem to be simply realisations of their creators' egos.

That we have ended up with three totally inappropriate designs is no accident. Brighton and Hove City Council claims it did not set any height guidelines since it felt the quality of design itself was more important than setting a maximum height. I can assure it that both are important and that by setting a height constraint it is going to affect the quality of design.

Another cause of this overblown project is the current trend towards multi-purpose use. You can't just have a sports centre these days. Oh, no, you have to have the usual add-ons - restaurants, a movie theatre, residential accommodation, perhaps a marina and a heliport? Before you know it, you have created an entire little city within the existing one.

None of these buildings in itself is really terrible. In the right place, they could all be lovely and very dramatic. They would look great in an unspoiled rural location or else absorbed into a congenial urban setting. But on the Hove seafront they are, all of them, much too large.

Instead of being daring and outrageous, why not opt for something smaller and more in keeping with the city and neighbourhood?

-Stephen E Silver, Hove Street, Hove