Spurred on by local celebs, council grandees and business leaders, Brighton and Hove has recently undergone massive and ongoing changes despite the objections of many residents.

When I moved here in 1984, it was full of cheap, easy-going and unpretentious pubs, cafes and shops and people were accepted however poor they were.

The culture felt relaxed and diverse and there was a sense of community everywhere.

It had a beautiful, spacious old library, two cheap swimming pools and a host of other good community facilities, with a first-class public transport system and unobtrusive traffic.

Able to afford high rents and property prices and attracted by the marketing of the city as the Place To Be, wealthy young Londoners are increasingly pushing out low wage earners and people on benefits.

Small retailers are either squeezed out of business and taken over by characterless corporate chains with inflated prices or jump on the gravy train themselves.

As the ruthless new "sink or swim" ethos takes over, community groups have their council grants slashed in favour of the whims of the nouveau riche and benefits claimants suffer incessant pressure to accept low-paid jobs or have their increasingly inadequate benefits stopped.

The arrogant yuppies making the city their own private playground seem to look down their noses at people who have lived here all their lives or be oblivious to the insult of pushing them from their own homes. So this is progress?

-Gary Kemp, Florence Road, Brighton