Professor Baker and other critics of the £290 million towers proposed for the King Alfred redevelopment are absolutely correct to oppose the current Karis scheme (The Argus, November 1).

The problem is not Frank Gehry's architecture but the gloss which it gives to a massive over-development of a crucial site.

As usual Brighton and Hove City Council is trying to do things on the cheap. So rather than pay for a quality refurbishment of the King Alfred leisure complex, it intends to have this done by a large dollop of so-called "planning gain".

This is money paid by developers from their profits, say on 754 prime location dwellings, towards public amenities which enhance the value of the neighbourhood - and of course their own investment.

So rather than knocking Gehry's giant drunken Dutch women, the real change needs to occur within the council and its staff.

The way to win the award of European City of Culture is not to slap an international architect's reputation on to a really bad planning brief - but to use a true cultural vision when developing the brief.

The council must be forced to reconsider. I'm sure Gehry/Karis could be approached to substantially scale down their design.

-Mike Daffern, architect, Brighton