Adam Trimingham, the so-called Sage of Sussex, shows at best a superficial knowledge about the Brighton Marina development plans (Argus, March 18).
He writes that the project ‘will leave the harbour looking handsome’ but the project being constructed is not the one designed by the international award-winning practice of Wilkinson Eyres consented in 2006.
Wilkinson Eyres are no longer employed in the project and numerous amendments have been made in the intervening eight years that have compromised their design.
He writes that ‘it will encourage much needed improvements such as a rapid transport system from the city centre’.
He is presumably referring to a proposed bus route along Madeira Drive? For a variety of reasons, it will never happen.
How could it given the numerous tourist-attracting events that regularly close Madeira Drive?
The plans for the 11 towers in the outer tidal harbour, the tallest being 40-storeys, were approved in 2006 without consulting the Deposited Plan with the 1968 Brighton Marina Act.
The plan was only located in October 2013 in the House of Lords Library.
The 40-storey tower block is outside the Limits of Deviation in the Act and therefore illegal.
That aside, the idea of building tower blocks to the south (seaward) of the tidal flood barrier is preposterous.
Mr Trimingham is correct in one respect – it will become a white whale – beached, lifeless, and for parts of the year inaccessible – possibly even closed to the public in extreme southwest gales just as the western breakwater is frequently closed to fishermen.
Robert Powell Marine Drive Brighton
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