A tall order indeed RESIDENTS in Hove are hoping the plans for 186 homes in a 17-storey development in Ellen Road will be scaled down. Alongside the Sackville Road development, huge changes are afoot.

Householders do, quite understandable, get very upset about such developments near their longstanding homes.

We are often told that we need more homes. There is a housing crisis. The Government has put targets on local authorities for new housing too.

The system is set up to cause friction. We create new homes in a patchy way. A few here, a few hundred there. But these projects need to be big and fit in properly. The transport infrastructure, parks, doctors’ surgeries and schools all need to be in place, redeveloped even.

Otherwise our wonderful city, like the country, continues to be made up of a hodgepodge of housing settlements.

While a bit of character is good, each new development cannot be looked at on its own merits.

Communities and their housing must be considered as a whole. If we have housing targets then we do need to solve that with big developments.

But somehow they must and can be developed in a way that considers their surroundings.

They must be bold in their design and provide a place which is not going to cause anxiety for the residents and neighbouring, existing housing.

This sounds difficult but there are schemes out there which provide high quality and high density housing which is not high-rise.

This is a city of forward thinking and the future must reflect that too.

Otherwise we will continue to add more and more houses in a way that affects existing residents negatively.