Historian Chris Horlock has launched a scathing attack on planners in his latest book of nostalgic photographs.

Brighton-born Mr Horlock, a teacher at Thomas A Beckett School, Worthing, said some decisions taken in Brighton and Hove over recent years were "awful" and called for excellence rather than mediocrity.

In Brighton and Hove Then and Now, Mr Horlock said: "The worry is not with the buildings being knocked down but the mediocrity and sameness of those that replace them.

"New housing recently put up in Edward Street looks exactly like new housing recently built in Worthing, which looks exactly like new housing built everywhere else.

"The Asda store at Hollingbury looks like most Asda stores throughout the country. Nearly all petrol stations are churned out to the same design, as are multi-screen cinema complexes, sports centres and buildings for leisure and recreation.

"Even modern churches have a box-like quality. Worst is the design of modern housing. We should be deeply worried about the roll-on effect of mediocre development proliferating any town or city, but even more so in an historic place like Brighton and Hove.

"Buildings are catalysts. They form attitudes. If they go on being increasingly bland and uniform, so too will our response to them."

In his third book on Brighton and Hove in bygone days, Mr Horlock has taken old photographs and returned to the spot they were taken, to get a modern view.

Perhaps the most startling image is that of King Street, once an attractive terraced thoroughfare but now blocked by an unsightly car park.

There is also a picture of Jubilee Street, named in 1810 to mark the golden jubilee of King George III, before it was bulldozed to make way for a car park.

Mr Horlock said: "It was hard work taking the present-day photographs.

"What at first appeared a straight-forward task soon proved to be a series of hugely irritating hit-and-miss forays, with the wrong kind of weather, buses or vans blocking the view and all manner of other distractions. Also, quite often, it was just impossible to stand where whoever took the old photographs stood."

The book, which costs £9.95 in local bookshops, draws on a number of photographs taken by The Argus. It is published by S B Publications, of 19 Grove, Seaford.