Thank you, Selma Montford, once again for taking up the role of civic nanny (Letters, January 9).

What would we do without you and your opposition to any landmark modern architecture in Brighton and Hove?

What a shame you weren't around when the Pavilion was proposed so you could have leapt to the attack against what was surely to become one of the most vulgar, distasteful and ruinous buildings in our city centre. Or when the viaduct over Preston and

London Roads was built and you could have campaigned against the monstrosity of its height and the modernity of its function of modern rail transport.

Excuse my sarcasm but Selma's predictable and constant opposition to any brave, beautiful modern building is threatening the future of Brighton and Hove, a city once again, after 200 years, the focus of excitement for the great architects of the world.

What is proposed on the site by the foot of Preston Park is a gateway to the city, a dazzling modern reinterpretation of the dash and brilliance of the our Regency heritage.

Designed by Piers Gough, a Brighton boy born and bred and now internationally celebrated as an architect, the building has the same proportions on its terraces as the bow fronts of the great Regency squares.

Seen from rail and road approaches to the city, it will be a great statement of a city in a new century.

In these debates, why oppose merely on the basis of height? Why not engage in a discussion about beauty and design?

Is Brighton and Hove to be continually held to ransom by Selma and the other conservationists, that if we do not merely reproduce Regency pastiche at cottage height they will harry the great architects out of town with vexatious use of the planning process, constant opposition and their spurious appeals to the past?

Sussex Heights is an ugly building. What happened in the Sixties and Seventies - under a different political council - to Queens Road and Edward Street is a visible disgrace.

I hate all that as much as I am sure Selma does. But at the moment in the city we have a rebirth of great design to match the Regency splendour that could lift our appeal to tourists and inhabitants alike.

Our city depends for so much of its economic success on its reputation. Let us reclaim our inheritance of bravery and face down those like Selma, admirable in her productivity but mistaken in her targets, who will forcibly keep Brighton and Hove in the past.

Instead, let us celebrate great modern buildings for a different kind of modern city.

-Simon Fanshawe, Chichester Terrace, Brighton