We are fortunate to live in a characterful, human-sized city

Norman Foster, the architect, recently opined that 'megacities will save mankind' - a megacity being one with more than 10 million inhabitants.

By 2050, he said, 70% of people will live in cities (over 50% already do).He measured cities' success mainly in terms of pollution control, economic growth, cycleways, mayors.

I think we are lucky, here in Brighton and Hove, not to live in one of Lord Foster's megacities. To live in a city that still retains its human scale. Of course it has its problems, some of which it shares with megacities.

Property prices have escalated out of all proportion, so that many ordinary people can barely afford to live here. (In a move that has been dubbed 'social cleansing', council staff have allegedly been instructed to advise residents struggling on benefits to move elsewhere).

We have too many people and too much traffic, pollution is excessive, and our demographic balance is awry - with too many students and incomers, too few older indigenes. Our city is stressed by its very popularity and success.

But it is still a city that feels individualistic and human, that you can walk about in with pleasure. I'd say it is already quite big enough. Once a city gets bigger than this, it becomes impersonal, mechanistic.

Cyril Connolly said 'no city should be too large for a man to walk out of in a morning'.

Historically, the world owes far more to small cities than to megalopolises.