It is heartening Councillor Simon Battle (Letters, March 29) now addresses himself to the question of housing people in Hove rather than advising them to move but he makes a simple matter needlessly complex.

Having told us at one time the King Alfred site needed a multiplex and so forth, he now says the shoreline has to be dominated by yet more flats if we are to have a sports centre.

In fact, there could be nothing simpler than to build housing upon the gasworks site and use money thus accruing to fund the King Alfred, in whatever shape it will take.

As we have seen upon the site of Montgomery House, buildings can be created that fit in with the neighbourhood, meet a need and turn a considerable profit. (The site was bought for £250,000 and each of the ten houses is for sale at some £190,000.)

Something along similar lines upon the gasworks site, with other amenities, a tranche of affordable housing and a variety of small businesses, would be in keeping with the regulations for a conservation area and the nature of the neighbourhood.

Such a thing is within Brighton and Hove City Council's power, for it has granted itself the right to make a compulsory purchase of the site.

To do so and set in motion something which shows imagination and meets the needs of the community would go some way to remedying the poor regard in which it is generally held and would certainly find greater favour in the eyes of a judicial review than the current proposal to plonk a 317-space car park next to a school playground.

-Christopher Hawtree, Westbourne Gardens, Hove