By supporting redevelopment in the form of towers Brighton and Hove City Council claims to be acting in the public interest because the city is desperate for housing.

Given the geological and environmental risks of building upwards on this part of the coast, residents' widespread dislike of Brighton and Hove's existing skyscrapers and the problems of inflationary house-prices, this is urban planning of near criminal irresponsibility.

More homes could be built elsewhere but, to paraphrase architectural pundit Jonathan Glancey, this would require imagination, careful planning, intelligent design and a curb on the enthusiasm of entrepreneurs and gamblers.

Before he was hanged at Tyburn in 1725, Jonathan Wild, the infamous thief-catcher and trader in received goods, penned a letter from prison advising his successors in how to succeed where he had failed.

"The public good," he wrote, "which has ever been the mask of self-interest and private avarice, must always be on the tip of your tongue. This notable phrase is swallowed down by the multitude with great approbation... they cannot be made to think ill of the person whose favourite topic is the welfare of his country, notwithstanding his more secret intentions are upon the most selfish principles in nature."

-Sue Power, Brighton