King Alfred: so dense it's daft

11:40am Wednesday 29th November 2006

The citizens are furious - they object to an overdevelopment designed by Frank Gehry which is clearly too big for the site he is proposing to cram it on to.

While the "free" community facility and low-cost housing promised in return for allowing this scheme to proceed sound good on paper, residents now wonder if it is worth it.

The scheme? The Atlantic Yards development in New York. That's right, Gehry and another group of backers are trying to foist a variation of the King Alfred plan on the Big Apple.

There are differences. Where Gehry claims the "inspiration" for his King Alfred towers is Victorian Maidens, he's morphed this creative impulse into Brooklyn Bridal Gowns for New York - and the inducement is a "free" basketball arena rather than a pool.

New York is arguably one of the most densely populated cities on the planet. Yet residents find Gehry's plan too overwhelming for downtown Brooklyn.

How on earth, then, could the same scheme be acceptable in small-scale, residential Hove?

If these designs have any intrinsic merit, why do they always come with a "freebie" to assist the local community and their elected officials in swallowing them?

It's time to stop this madness and save our precious seafront for ourselves and our posterity.

If Karis refuses to scale the King Alfred project back to a reasonable size, let's bite the bullet, pay the cancellation fees and get on with building our own new leisure centre.

• Peter McKenna, Fourth Avenue, Hove