Having just returned from the US, I was intrigued to read of Brighton and Hove City Council's plans to emulate the strip developments that are so fashionable over there.

It's such an easy concept. You just get in your car and cruise along these wall-to-wall commercial, crowded boulevards.

Now it's coming to Brighton - we have the marina, with even grander plans for yet more building and the King Alfred, both with dramatic high-rise developments.

This is, quite literally, infilling. After King Alfred comes the West Pier development.

Meanwhile, the marina escapes its confines and heads west, with a huge events arena, accommodating 8,000 to 11,000 people.

It won't be long before Brighton loses all sense of place and local space, becoming just another faceless conurbation, with dense commercial development.

Council leader Ken Bodfish's characteristic firm assurance (Letters, September 17) that Brighton and Hove City Council will address the rising problem of anti-social behaviour is laudable.

Those of us who live or work in the city know he is always ready to make such clear and uncompromising promises.

But when it comes to searching for substance behind such promises, things become less clear.

Councillor Bodfish says the council is "working actively alongside" Sussex Police and community support officers to solve the problem.

It must be a very big desk they are actively working behind - because we rarely see any of them on the streets where they are needed.

Or perhaps working separately at keyboards in their various offices, paid for by an ever increasing burden on taxpayers, these agencies are actively waiting for the problem to come to them?

Well, the problem is surely heading their way. It will arrive at their various desks at the next elections.

For the elected members, perhaps it will begin to arrive a little earlier because we are always blessed with the sight of councillors more active on our streets at election time.

-Ron Trussell, Hove