Specific projects should always be evaluated on their merits.

But I am concerned about criticisms of Brighton and Hove City Council's general strategy of trying to raise the city's profile.

Inevitably, as critics assert, making the place better known and more attractive is likely to escalate property prices.

There is a real issue here about keeping homes affordable. We should press politicians for solutions.

But it is not a problem unique to Brighton and Hove, nor one that can be sensibly tackled by stopping promotional activities.

Among other things, these help to increase tourism, an export in which all the transport costs are paid by the purchaser, the bills are usually paid up-front and the benefits are quite widely spread.

Should the council adopt instead a strategy of running down the city? The result of a successful pursuit of such a strategy might be a stagnant or falling local economy with, perhaps, steady or falling house prices.

But there would also be a significant rise in unemployment. One doesn't have to look too far away to see the probable result.

Is this what the critics really want? My guess is that the same people would then be writing in complaining about economic and social decline and blaming the council for that.

-Ian Bullock, Bonchurch Road, Brighton