Last Thursday's council vote to scrap the 1968 ban on tower blocks at Brighton Marina was pure window dressing.

Brighton and Hove City Council gave planning permission for Brunswick's marina tower block development before voting to scrap the 1968 Parliamentary Act banning tower blocks at the marina.

In doing so, did the council put itself in the position of being "compelled" to void the 1968 law or face legal action by the developer?

Why did the vote to scuttle the 1968 law take place after planning permission had already been given?

How was the council able to give planning permission when, at the moment it did so, the 1968 law banning tower blocks at the marina was still in force? How was the council able to make a commitment to a developer which was, at the time they did so, illegal?

Now the council has voided the 1968 law so a private developer can make gigantic profits.

So, of course, we can expect a massive barrage of similar towerblock proposals.

What will save us from becoming, as one councillor said last week most prophetically, "Croydon-on-Sea"?

It does appear Brighton and Hove's wonderful seafront will soon be a cliff of grotesque concrete high-rise monstrosities.

Even an Act of Parliament, which was enacted specifically to protect us from such vandalism, apparently isn't enough to stop the destruction of our seafront.

The way the issue has been handled by the council is disgraceful and will have immense repercussions going far beyond Brighton Marina itself.

-William Tessier, Hove