Peter Poole is quite right to end his letter with the statement that plans for the inner harbour at Brighton Marina are not about one building but cumulative impact (The Argus, December 4).

Cumulative impact is born of cumulative need and the marina plans will serve both the pressing need to make the marina (the third largest in Europe) a destination that people want to visit and the pressing need of the wider city for homes and jobs on the doorstep of one of the country’s most deprived wards.

When our 8.5 million visitors come to Brighton and Hove (thus supporting 13,000 jobs) the marina should be on their list of “must see” attractions, along with the Royal Pavilion, The Lanes, the seafront, etc. It needs an almost total makeover of its commercial content if it is to be a meaningful part of the city’s destination offer and the Explore Living scheme represents the radical surgery that it needs.

The scheme also offers a substantial contribution to the vast shortfall in affordable homes that we need to build every year if we are to house our workforce, which is increasing.

Indeed, over the next decade we will see an increase of 12,000 people, which will necessitate 8,400 more jobs.

And that is before we try to move the 25,000 people currently unemployed back into work.

In the light of these statistics, the 1,300 homes and 480 jobs provided by the marina development suddenly take on an increased significance.

We have very few places to build in the city but we still have a responsibility to future generations to ensure that they have jobs and homes.

Building at the marina, an already developed site, will allow us to accommodate some of the employment and residential needs of the children of today when they grow up to be the workforce of tomorrow.

Tony Mernagh
executive director
Brighton and Hove Economic
Partnership