Adam Trimingham's heartfelt plea for the conservation of the Downs (The Argus, April 24) is consistent with his stance for many years on the subject but tends towards myopic nimbyism.

He writes of "ugly council houses" in places such as Hollingbury and Hangleton, homes for thousands of ordinary families. He does have a point insofar as, in bygone years, it was possible to spot "council houses" just by the sheer lack of detail and blandness of design. However, those homes do not deserve to be sneered at so lightly by a self-proclaimed middle-class career chap.

Mr Trimingham talks of the seven miles of dual-carriageway carved though "200 acres of fields and woods" creating "noise and pollution". Again, he does have a point insofar as those same dual-carriageways are indeed full of proles (and, dare I say it, members of the bourgeoisie) busily driving to their places of work to support their families in their ugly houses in Hangleton and Hollingbury. If only they could secure themselves careers that allowed them to cycle to work from their comfy semis south of Church Road, Hove.

Is it possible the downland surrounding Brighton and Hove needs more houses built upon it?

The freeing of the planning process and subsequent deflation of land values could, in consequence, enable less "ugly" yet more affordable homes to be built.

Certain areas of the Downs are indeed quite lovely but large tracts are just fields covered in centuries-old varieties of domesticated weeds as well as oil rapeseed. Mr Trimingham's journalistic credentials are ebbing and I feel he knows it. Perhaps he sees himself

sitting upon the board of the proposed National Park.

What Stalinist delights would be imposed upon lesser mortals thereafter? Perhaps an underground electricity station powered by thousands of pedalling unwashed?

-Hugh Russell, Hove