IT IS hard to look at the initial designs for the King Alfred leisure and homes complex and be anything other than mightily unimpressed.

Blocks of non-descript flats built around a boring monolithic leisure centre have been largely met by a collective groan.

Sure these are initial designs and there will be some scope for changes.

But given that this has already been through years of secret discussion and that the large scale upgrade this plan really needs is unlikely to be afforded, one cannot help but fear the worst.

One must bear in mind that the new King Alfred will be around on our seafront for a couple of lifetimes.

We must get it right.

If it were slap bang in the middle of a town perhaps it wouldn’t matter but it is not.

It is on the greatest city seafront in England, one that is crying out for a bold new injection of life.

Council leaders and scheme backers have been heard saying it is all about the leisure centre.

We are sure this part will be fine.

They have been quick to dismiss the idea that the King Alfred project should have been a beauty contest.

They are profoundly wrong on both counts.

It simply cannot be only about what the pool and gym facilities are like.

And to talk of beauty as if it’s some frippery proves how flawed this whole secretive process has been.

For beauty on our beloved seafront should be one of the key ingredients of this project.

We want iconic, bold and fresh.

At the moment we are nowhere near getting it.