There is always an upside to every economic slowdown and the one that must be making every lover of Brighton and Hove smile is the news that the horrendous Karis development might be shelved. Hopefully this mini recession will also spell the end of monstrous developments such as those planned for Brighton Marina.
All of this shows clearly where the priorities of the developers lay.
Forget all the rubbish about "being good for Brighton" and "our economy depends on these developments".
The watchword for developers is profit and if it isn't there, they will go looking for some other bunch to flash their cash at. My fingers are firmly crossed that we will have seen the end of "celebrity" developments.
- Derek A Coles, South Coast Road, Peacehaven
Knowing the way things happen in Brighton, the King Alfred debacle will be the subject of analysis and argument for many years to come.
We have not quite heard the sound of the tree falling in the forest yet but "timber" has surely been yelled.
With the Gehry towers in financial mid-collapse, it seems it won't be long before our politicians are running for cover and no doubt passing the buck on who was to blame.
The worst aspect is the distrust that now exists between activists and the council. After their respective parts in this sorry saga, how can we ever again trust any of the four parties who run Brighton?
- Peter Poole, Eastern Road, Brighton
Exactly how much of our city taxes will be paid to the developer to build the King Alfred? After all this time, we still don't know. The original reason given for the development was that the developer would pay for a new sports centre. As it turns out, we taxpayers, fools that we are, will now be paying for at least one of the apartment blocks.
And heaven only knows how much more, as the council simply won't tell us. As construction costs skyrocket and the selling price of small flats plummets no doubt the developer will insist that the council make up the growing profit gap.
Given the heaps of city taxpayers' money the council will end up sinking into the King Alfred developer's profit, we could have easily had a fine, up-to-date, totally refurbished sports centre. And without having almost 800 flats piled like sad rabbit hutches on to that minuscule site.
We can only hope the credit crunch ends this sad saga once and for all.
- Bill E Murray, Grand Avenue, Hove
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