The Sackville Trading Estate is not exactly a hive of activity.

The financial press last year indicated that some Focus DIY shops might close (the usual takeover and mergers story) and it occurred to me then that the one in Hove might soon close.

I now learn a huge redevelopment of the whole Sackville Trading Estate is in the pipeline and well advanced (The Argus, February 12).

On Monday evening plans will be unveiled at a VIP reception at the Lansdowne Hotel, although saveHOVE is not invited. On Tuesday from 11am to 8pm and on Wednesday from 10am to 3pm the general public are invited to Hove Methodist Church to look at what is proposed and provide feedback to the developers.

The whole area either side of Hove station and east to Sackville Road is in need of a serious rethink as to appropriate use for the years to come. Too much activity is currently funnelled towards the sea, including all the shopping and traffic.

The baby boomers are now beginning to retire in their droves and there is an increased need for home-helps to do shopping, because it is not to hand for the elderly or disabled. It is a fast-growing problem that government and planning authorities would be wise to begin to address now.

Any new mixed development which includes a supermarket should automatically include housing aimed at older or disabled people around or above it. This would mean they can remain selfsufficient and independent and won't need a home-help to assist them with food and other shopping.

Too many older people face banishment to an institution for the rest of their lives for want of a few local shops, benches, garden walls and public lavatories.

Sadly, what is proposed for the Sackville Trading Estate will almost certainly deliver out-oftown supermarket customers, commuters and owners of second homes in the main.

  • Valerie Paynter, saveHOVE PO Box 521, Hove