I was interested to read Adam Trimingham's article "It's time to applaud, not moan" (The Argus, September 14), especially his comments about the "whiners and whingers" of Hove who are opposing the redevelopment of the King Alfred site.

I am sure Mr Trimingham is right to suggest opposition to change, be it good or ill, has been a hallmark of Hove society for a long time.

His article reminded me of an essay Richard Jefferies wrote in the 1880s which castigated the people of Hove for their opposition to plans to build a tramway through the two towns.

"Brighton station," Jefferies wrote, "has no bus and poor people must trudge through rain and storm. The tramway was to go up to the station and looked a very convenient arrangement but the Hove people who were chiefly interested would have nothing to do with it.

"They howled it down, they organised bands of work people to shout it off the platform and stirred themselves into bubbling indignation. A tramway in sacred Hove - trams in the holy land of Hove!"

"Bubbling indignation" won the day and the tramway wasn't built.

-Chris Hare, Worthing