Who IS Ken Fines to set himself up as the arbiter of good taste? I am so outraged by his campaign against the King Alfred I've done some investigating.

Mr Fines says he is proud to have been a planner in Brighton and Hove for 33 years (he was in charge of planning from 1974 to 1983) but this is a man who allowed some of the most mediocre buildings in our city's history to be built.

Mr Fines, it seems, would rather have bland buildings of no architectural merit than the stunning architecture of Frank Gehry.

He derides the proposals for the King Alfred as being "the architecture of deformity".

Would he rather see proposals like the unsightly Thistle Hotel and Bartholomew Square, for which he was responsible?

Whatever one thinks of the interior of the Thistle Hotel, its facade is ugly and Bartholomew Square is far from enticing.

I am amazed his continuous bleating that the King Alfred site cannot be built on receives any media coverage.

Given the huge costs surrounding the King Alfred scheme, I am sure the developers wouldn't be progressing with a planning application without having first checked their proposals could be built.

Certainly, the dreadful office blocks in Preston Road which Mr Fines approved should never have been allowed opposite our muchloved, historic Preston Park.

Frank Gehry is respected and acclaimed the world over and with good reason - his buildings are beautiful. Mr Fines may be qualified to be the judge of the mediocre but not of Frank Gehry.

-Lawrence Alkin, artrepublic, Bond Street, Brighton