WHILE travelling by taxi recently, I learnt that my driver had worked on the building of Hove Town Hall.  The front entrance pillars are buried some 25ft below ground, he told me, because of the high water table and shingle problems encountered when it was built.

He described being down at the bottom of the holes making various changes to shapes to resolve the situation.

One would love to hear the stories of other builders of notable buildings, such as the American Express building (to be demolished by 2016).

Letter writers seeking new skating rinks, leisure centres and suchlike at King Alfred need to bear in mind that acquifers are very close to the surface and piling to stabilise would have to be deep, and expensive.

Chalk, shingle and water all conspire to caution the eager about just how expensive a new sporting centre would be on the King Alfred site.

The Hove Station area is desperately in need of redevelopment and regeneration, and is just that much farther inland.

Perhaps the powers-that-be are missing a trick in not considering a land-swap which would put a relocated King Alfred where there are currently empty sheds and a derelict factory.

A developer could then better organise something for the seafront at King Alfred to provide some other kind of long-term economic activity – and I’m not talking about blocks of flats.

A skating rink, swimming pool and leisure centre close to Hove Station (with perhaps the sheltered housing on top which should have been requested for the Park House site in Hove) is a dream prosperity ticket.

With all the easy-access transport links by it, the lost life of that area, so foolishly cleared in the 1960s and 1980s from Ellen Street all the way up to the Goldstone Retail Park, would come flooding back.

Valerie Paynter, saveHOVE