For some years I have enjoyed an allotment on the North Neville site, Hove.

One of the site's bugbears is the people who take them on find it's hard work and let them get overgrown.

One adjacent to me had been without a tenant for two years and had turned into an overgrown tip.

So imagine my joy when it was taken over by an industrious Sudanese gentleman and his family.

He cleared the site, erected a new fence, built an attractive shed and put in slab paths. The pergola for his roses is a joy to see and will increase in beauty as they grow. He also made a neat play area for children.

You would think the other allotment tenants would be happy to behold all this.

The family are Coptic Christians who have possibly suffered persecution for their beliefs in the past. What I am sure of is that they did not expect the sort of petty treatment they have suffered here.

To finish off the work, they marked off some Coptic crosses on the fence and raised one on top of the hut.

In answer to this wonderful achievement, local residents and some allotment holders have complained by letter and phone to the Hove allotments officer, citing:

1 They want the cross removed.

2 Too many people visit the allotment.

3 He holds barbecues.

4 Children can be a nuisance.

I have met and talked with his children and find them very polite and well behaved.

My friend is being told to take the cross down. Is there not discrimination here - whether it be race or religion?

-Dave Huggins, Hove