Only two months and a day after September 11, New York was hit by another air disaster.

Almost immmediately, mayor Rudolph Giuliani was on TV explaining and offering reassurance. One is tempted to wonder who would be the face of our city if ever Brighton and Hove faced a major emergency.

Voters rejected the notion of an elected mayor. Presumably, they could not face the prospect of any of the local time-serving party hacks getting the job.

It is sad there was no worthwhile mayoral candidate to attract voters, because the city is facing an emergency.

Brighton and Hove City Council desperately needs someone with the power and vision to cope with the pace of change in the city. The primary task for that person would be to force through a serious, long-term city development plan in partnership with architects of international quality and blue-chip property investors.

Major redevelopments are going on in North Street and the North Laines, each of them apparently unconnected. Arguments about the Brighton station site rumble on. London Road is in urgent need of serious development. There is still no confirmation the Albion will have a new stadium.

The local planners' decision to allow the old soccer ground to be turned into a tacky "retail park" was an appalling betrayal of the city and the fans. But that was a minor dereliction in a succession of planning disasters since the Sixties.

The exterior design of the Brighton Centre and the related seafront buildings was simply civic vandalism. Those tower blocks could have been major landmarks instead of architectural scars. The law courts and the council buildings in Queens Road are no more than concrete brutalism. More recent developments have clearly been designed by a cement salesman.

There must be someone in charge of all this. Or do Brighton and Hove councillors have no shame?

-Allan Allbeury, Kemp Town