Pier proposal will ruin city's heritage

The Argus - Letters Monday, 20 May, 2002

DR Geoff Lockwood (Letters, 13 May) attacks opponents of the atrocious West Pier development by labelling us as a few, old-fashioned, backward-looking fuddy-duddies.

Nothing could be further from the truth. Our committee contains a film producer, a computer executive, a hotelier, a civil engineer, a London journalist and a former BBC director - all of them experienced, hard-headed, worldly people who know full well how Brighton and Hove must develop if it is to stay successful in the 21st Century.

We know the city must appeal to an increasing population of young people, must have bold ideas to attract tourists and has an obligation to continue to encourage an an expanding service industry. What we also know, however, is that we do not want the superb environment of the city to be so totally degraded it loses forever its chief claim to world renown - its beauty, Regency architecture, historic royal past and matchless setting between Downs and sea.

The Dr Lockwoods of their day were probably making much the same denigrating remarks about the very determined group of "protectionists" who, in 1945, banded together to defeat the wreckers who were then hell-bent on destroying the whole of Brunswick Town and Adelaide Crescent in order to put up blocks of utilitarian flats. That group became the Regency Society. They were also saying much the same things in 1994 when the owner of Peter Pan's playground put in an application to concrete over 136,000 sq ft of beach in front of Marine Square in order to erect a monstrous permanent fairground. Luckily, on those two occasions, there were enough people to shout a very loud no.

Save Our Seafront is now enjoying enormous support across the entire city. We like to think we are sensible, forward-looking people who simply prefer to look out on to the sea and horizon than on to the back of perfunctorily designed sheds housing a huge commercial complex.

Save Our Seafront fully supports the West Pier's restoration, as Dr Lockwood well knows. We also realise an enabling development is necessary. That is why we put on our own exhibition, A Better Alternative, in which the architects presented an elegant and viable scheme which not only observed the first principle of marine town planning by keeping their development below promenade level but also achieved the same area of commercial space as the brutally intrusive plans of St Modwen.

Dr Lockwood suggests we are given too much civic respect. There is a simple reason for it. The vast majority of people we have canvassed are shocked and horrified by the West Pier proposal and we believe the overflowing postbags of objection letters being delivered to Brighton and Hove City Council will make our democratic point.

Clive Buxton
Save Our Seafront, Dean Street, Brighton