Is anyone else beginning to feel nervous about living in Brighton and Hove?

Last Wednesday, masked gunmen robbed a building society on London Road, where shoplifting has also reached court-blocking heights.

Other big city-style problems we have include widespread drug abuse and criminality, striking workers strained by demands on them, house prices shoved up beyond the reach of many and aggressive developers threatening the council.

The cost of living here is at the heart of the anti-social behaviour that, like parking and congestion, is making our lives tenser.

Pollution is choking our children and soaring areas of development threaten an infrastructure already under great pressure.

Recent hostility from architects, developers and the business community towards Brighton and Hove City Council's planning process is misplaced, particularly in an environment where our greatest asset - our seaside location - is concerned.

Get-rich-quick developments have destroyed once-lovely resorts from Florida to the shores of Spain and none of us would want to see the future of our vibrant city jeopardised by similar schemes.

Brighton and Hove's architectural reputation rests on the elegance and proportion of low-level squares and terraces which give the seafront a coherent sense of harmony.

By all means, submit bold and ambitious schemes to the council but expect them to be rigorously examined. Overdevelopment and the coarsening of our built environment has social as well as economic consequences for residents.

I'm glad city planners are trying to control development rather than allowing commercial interests to determine the city we become.

Pressure from the business community should not blind us to the increasing tensions between the city's haves and have-nots.

-Sue Power, Brighton