I would like to thank you for the excellent report in The Argus last Friday ("Residents line up to fight developer").

I have consulted other members of our group and they agree that the report puts our case succinctly and accurately.

We also liked the report: "People power wins battle against flats" in last Thursday's Argus.

We take heart that conservation area status makes it difficult for developers to knock down existing houses, since we have fears for the terrace from 59 to 81 Princes Road.

We assume that Dyke Road residents may be attempting to have a say in additional planning guidelines, since we have discovered that conservation area status alone does not prevent new residential development on back-land, claiming private gardens and stripping areas of their green spaces.

I expect that the general issue will remain the subject of a number of your reports, given Government plans to build half a million new homes in the South-East.

The focus of our campaign is not against new housing per se, though there are reported to be 700,000 empty homes in Britain, 63,000 in the East of England, 100,000 in London and 80,000 in the rest of the South-East.

The feedback we have had from the flyer we circulated to Roundhill residents indicates that local people want to have a say in where new houses go, what they look like and how communities develop.

Ad-hoc planning in already densely-populated areas, led by the motives of developers rather than reflecting community interests, is not a sustainable way of providing new homes. Infrastructure and new homes need to be planned together.

-Ted Power, Brighton