Like many of my neighbours in Ovingdean, I was shocked to learn our village is to be targeted in a planning application by Southern Water for its multi-million pound sewage treatment works (The Argus, December 17).

Before the obvious label of Nimby is levelled at me, I ask the question "why?", not "where?".

Why does Southern Water feel compelled to treat our waste and pipe it out to sea? Do landlocked cities - Birmingham, Leicester, Coventry et al - pipe their "flushings" to the coast? Certainly not.

As a regular sea bather - this year, well into October - I applauded Alan Trimingham's article some months ago, which extolled the virtues of sea bathing.

In 25 years of bathing from local beaches I am happy to report not one "gippy tummy" or "mysterious rash" as a result.

For the past eleven years, since my daughter was born, I have frequented the beach at Ovingdean.

On any warm weekend throughout the summer, one sees the same families, with growing children, enjoying the simple delights of fresh sea air, rock-pooling, mugs of tea and cake and conversation with friends away from the bustle of Brighton and Hove and pressures of the office.

The proximity of these facilities was a great influence on our moving to the area a year ago.

-Jay Butler, Ovingdean