It now appears likely the North Street Quadrant site will remain a hole in the ground for at least a year (The Argus, September 26).

So, how did we arrive at this state of affairs? There is an existing planning approval for the whole site between Air Street and North Street Quadrant, which dates back to April 2002.

It consists of a modern building at the southern end, the retention of the Victorian three-storey building which faced the Clock Tower and retention of the Quadrant pub on the north corner.

However, during 2002 the developer and architect for the site decided they did not want to keep the central Victorian block which met with little opposition from the planning officers.

There appears to have only been one letter from the planning officer expressing disappointment with the developer's attitude.

In April 2003, a new application was submitted with the central Victorian block replaced by a reconstructed facade.

The planning officers instructed the developer to withdraw this application as they did not approve of a large shopping unit contained within a facade made up of different architectural styles.

It appears this application was never submitted to the planning committee even though externally it was almost an exact replica of the original approved scheme.

In May, buildings on the site were demolished. The Brighton Society was concerned because it was obvious the contractors were preparing to demolish the central Victorian block and informed the planners on May 6.

Sadly, the building was demolished in three days.

We received a reply to our "urgent" letter four weeks after the building was demolished saying it could not be stopped because the building was not in a conservation area.

The council had obviously co-operated with the demolition contractor as it had arranged for North Street Quadrant to be closed off so demolition could be carried out.

In July a new application was submitted and by then all the varied facades had been replaced by a vast modern building taking up nearly the whole site.

This new application had the approval of the officers and it has to be assumed the changes to the design had been carried out on the advice of the planning officers.

The mystery, however, is why the officers could possibly think the planning committee would approve the new application.

Air Street is a narrow pedestrian way, which has an obvious need for small shops. This proposal destroys the environment of Air Street as for most of its length it would be dominated by five metre high plate glass windows interspersed by fire exits.

The Victorian building that faced the Clock Tower was to be kept in the original approval because it was thought to be important to retain the scale and quality of the Victorian architecture.

The new scheme removes any suitable backdrop to the Clock Tower, replacing it with a five-storey monolithic block completely out of scale with the area.

-Malcolm Dawes, chairman, The Brighton Society, Rugby Road, Brighton