It was hardly a surprise to read about more damage being attempted by Gordon Brown’s failing and morally bankrupt regime in its dying days.

To demand Sussex builds 116,000 homes (The Argus, May 7) without regard to environmental and infrastructural constraints is the latest gimmick to come out of a lame-duck government. It knows it is doomed and is more than happy to further poison the chalice it will hand to its successors. Attempting to impose such unrealistic top-down targets, against the clearly expressed wishes of the local population and its elected representatives, is nothing less than an assault on local democracy.

These new targets will seem like manna from heaven to Explore Living, the developer still hoping to fill Brighton Marina with tower blocks and turn the seafront into a gridlocked, scaled-up replica of 1960s Croydon. Brighton and Hove City Council’s planning committee, which rejected Explore’s grotesque plans in December, should ignore central government interference and fight the developer’s appeal with every means at its disposal.

We will soon be emerging from the dark tunnel of chronic central government failure and we do not want Brighton to bear its scars.

Brian Simpson savebrighton campaign The Cliff, Brighton