In praising Frank Gehry's architecture, Matt Morris says pressure groups cause delays, spiralling costs, compromise and blandness (Letters, February 5).

I suspect he may be thinking of my Hova (Heritage Over Vandalism Actually) group, formed to oppose Gehry's proposed skyscrapers for the King Alfred site. I am pleased to say we have 970 individual members, plus The Brighton Society and three residents' associations as members.

As a former borough planning officer of Brighton, I can state that pressure groups have for long been an established part of our democratic principle of public participation in the planning process. In fact, I was invited to lead a deputation to the last meeting of the city council.

A photo of Gehry's Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao was included with the letter from Mr Morris. In my statement to the council I said: "Much has been made of the Bilbao Effect but there can be little comparison with our city. The Spanish town was in decline with much dereliction. This was reversed, not by Gehry's museum, but also by many other initiatives. Furthermore, the museum was built on a derelict dockland site and is no more than a medium-rise development."

Readers who have seen the photo may judge for themselves whether or not what I call the "architecture of deformity" would be appropriate on the Hove seafront.

Mr Morris says that those who have been "fossilised" demand a Regency feature on any new building. In this respect, he includes the Endeavour tower, which has now been withdrawn. I find it ironic that, at his public meeting, architect Piers Gough claimed his tower reflected local Regency bow-fronts. I referred to this as "commercial spin".

-Ken Fines, Hove