Tim Ridgway says we should be grateful for the proposed restoration of the Brighton Hippodrome, no matter how much the interior space will be compromised by conversion into a restaurant/cinema venue (The Argus, April 14).

He says the money isn’t there to do it any other way.

Alas, this attitude has often characterised other major developments – notably, during the King Alfred saga where residents were meant to be grateful that a sports centre would be rebuilt at any cost: in that case, loss of facilities and the imposition of excessive enabling development.

However, a long shadow falls over the Hippodrome in the form of the i360.

Here, for something the majority do not want, the money has been conjured up from the Public Works Loan Board.

If that is possible for a shard of metal, why not to restore a much-loved venue?

Last week, I attended a seafront scrutiny meeting at a café near the West Pier remains where plans to restore the seafront were discussed – but, again, where was the money?

If such plans had been bundled together, taking in the seafront from the marina to the lagoon, this strategy could itself have been classified as a single scheme and applied for public works funding direct.

Instead, the funding gap has been used as an opportunity to justify the i360.

We should never be grateful when bad schemes are thrust upon us. It is equally possible to make a good bid for a decent scheme, if the political will is there.

Peter Poole, Eastern Road, Brighton