THE recent decision to approve the revised Centenary Quay plans is not just a sad compromise to drop a small segment of public riverside walk to avoid delaying the project. It is not just a sad precedent and a green light for developers to make promises to the public safe in the knowledge they can drop them later.

It is part of an ongoing tragedy in which “regeneration” of derelict sites by the waterside is failing the people of Southampton. In which concreting them over and building “iconic” (developer speak for tall) buildings is seen as adequate improvement. In which public access to the waterside is squeezed in where convenient on the grounds that “any access is better than none”.

Unlike the 19th century planners who gave us our magnificent parks, and architect Herbert Collins who put green spaces at the heart of his housing designs, the developers of our new waterfront “regenerations” include include little or no truly green space. Our worst example is the concrete desert that is Ocean Village.

If the tower at Centenary Quay had been further from the water, instead of a walkway we could have had a small park in front of it, with shrubs, trees and great views. There would have been no need to remove it due to “wind tunnel effects” or trouble-makers hiding in it.

Our waterfront is too precious to allow it to disappear under more concrete with every new development.

Yes we need homes, but we need more than homes. Not every “public space” needs to be a paved square. We need some of the land made into new parks for residents and visitors to enjoy, linked up at every opportunity to make as continuous as possible a waterside path along the river.

Ms Angela Cotton, Southern & District Green Party