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I HESITATE to say that I find the Far South very attractive. Extremely so, in fact. I hesitate because there are so many opinions to the contrary that I fear I must be missing something.

I came across a website the other day - let's call it research - that listed Fish Hoek as the fourth worst town (after Brighton) in the world. Now, I agree the main road could do with some work, but comparing it to Brighton is pushing it. Dover, maybe, but not Brighton.

Hayibo.com further claims that overnight visitors to the suburb are driven to suicide by the break of day. The south does have a reputation for suicides, so I won't labour the point, but I will say that I have been driven to fury and exasperation by a number of places I have come across during the course of my travels, and they all have one thing in common: over-development. If I had to choose between deadly dull and tourist nirvana, I must concede my preference for the former.

In my humble opinion, the Algarve, the south of Spain and much of coastal Thailand bear testament to just why we should guard against reckless development and the orchestrators thereof. These places are so congested, thanks to the relentless building of high-rise apartments and hotels, that their original purpose has been subverted. Instead of visiting such places, many travellers in search of picturesque holiday getaways are now going ? and spending their cash ? elsewhere. Benidorm on the Costa Blanca should be the poster-town as to what not to do.

In the case of Europe, much of this is due to foreign investment and development, which is, of course, welcome in moderation. But the governments that have allowed, or even been beneficiaries of, such blatant, almost colonialist, over-expansion are in many cases ? like Benidorm ? now trying to undo that which cannot be undone.

It is too late to start saying no when the horizon has been obliterated by skyscrapers that resemble a cross between a silo and a pendulum and one cannot see the sea 20 metres from the shore. And it is impossible to reinstate the fauna and flora or the historical value such places once had in abundance.

It also does not take very long for this irreversible damage to take place. A glance at some guidebooks from only ten years ago record what are now industrial eyesores strewn with garbage as "quaint fishing villages". Just like Kalk Bay, Simon's Town and even Hout Bay.

It only takes one lax law or one bad or corrupt decision to set a precedent that clangs the death knell for an entire suburb.

This is not to say that investment is never welcome or necessary, only that a close eye must be kept over it to ensure moderation and appropriateness. We should not be falling over ourselves in blind gratitude for any influx of money, but be extremely aware that very little, if any, of it stems from altruism.

The City of Cape Town's draft Coastline Development Guidelines are currently under consideration and five coastal suburbs have been earmarked for precisely the kind of high-density development that will ruin them: Sea Point, Milnerton, Table View, Muizenberg and Camps Bay.

This could see 10-to 12-storey buil?dings cluttering the beachfronts, with even higher developments going up behind them, effectively destroying the view that makes them so attractive - and valuable - in the first place.

Cape Town is a hotspot for overseas as well as local developers, but while we bask in the glory of living in such a coveted spot, we may well be tacitly complicit in its downfall. All is seldom as it seems where big money is concerned and, as always when aforesaid cash is involved, there are those who will ensure that their interests are served at any cost.

There are already a number of developments that have been given the go-ahead, despite being detrimental to the area they are in; the Sonnekus flats in Camps Bay and the Cinnabar in Muizenberg illustrate the point well, I believe.

And while Fish Hoek seems safe for now in that only three-storey buildings on the beachfront are currently on the cards (can you hear the sirens?), the time may come sooner than we think that the suicide junkies who apparently frequent the town will be able to launch themselves from the nea?rest high-rise hotel into the inevitably litter-infested sea below.

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