When Brighton Marina was being built, the noise of the pile-driving could be heard across the city morning, noon and night.

Not very nice for people in the hospital just up the road.

Then there was the endless stream of lorries clogging the roads and causing pollution.

Could it all happen again in the pursuit of "progress", a word which has been used a lot in these pages recently. There is always a price to pay for progress.

Does Brighton need to progress? Was the building of Sussex Heights progress in its day?

Is there a danger of gilding the lily? The fear Brighton will be left behind if it doesn't progress is ill-conceived.

Brighton will always be ahead simply because there are more than eight million people on its doorstep with a deep desire to get away from a concrete jungle to somewhere a little more pleasing to the eye, which the city mostly is at the moment.

I suppose it would be progress for Brighton and Hove City Council, with the extra council tax receipts from the proposed developments, and for those involved in building them, with their massive profits.

-Douglas Lowe, Kemp Town