Officers Field is the last piece of flat recreation ground in Underhill.

I campaigned with thousands of Portlanders and friends to save it for future generations a sports field and open space.

We lost the battle.

Nobody really listened, not the South West Regional Development Agency (Swerda), not our MP and not the Olympic delivery organisations.

As conscience money, £500,000 was allocated by Swerda to be spent on leisure provision in Underhill - money for a skate park, Victoria Gardens, Boscawen Centre and, bizarrely, a sports field to be used by the new school. Second prize.

The plan was for 30-odd environmentally-friendly homes. We need housing; we need new builds to be environmentally-friendly, we needed investment in leisure and sports facilities so it was second prize but not a disaster.

Or so I thought, just before Christmas the first building went up. Changes to planning permission now allow 70-plus homes.

No plan submitted prepared me for the size of the actual buildings, three storeys and built close to the road and above road level.

They feel like four storeys, way out of proportion to anything nearby in fact there is nothing nearby.

The company building them is 0c, I think the 0 was awarded to them out of 10 for design quality.

Energy efficient, built from sustainable materials, carbon neutral - all these things they may be, but environmentally friendly? Certainly not in my environment of Underhill.

They are a disgrace; the open views to the beach, to the Mere, even from the beach road towards Victoria gardens are lost or spoilt.

If this turns out to be the athletes’ village for the Olympics - as rumour has it - then that will be the final insult to all that protested against the development.

All those who claim to have delivered a legacy to Portland from the 2012 games will be correct.

The legacy is the theft of a sports and recreation field and important open space in exchange for an overdeveloped housing estate. Ironic, that Officers Field is lost forever only to house athletes for three weeks, sacrificed on the Olympic altar.

It is too late to appeal for a more modest and sympathetic scheme. Portland has been stuffed again.

I was feeling enthused with the activities at the Portland sailing academy, 2012 and, by and large, the developments and employment within Osprey Quay. I had even forgiven them for the huge industrial barns along the beach road.

Now, whenever I come on to or leave the Island I am confronted with this insult to my senses - a disregard to the residents of Portland and generations to come.

Nothing has made me feel that all the other Olympic benefits put together could compensate for this abuse of our Island.

I regret now that I didn't act in a more extreme way to attempt to prevent the development.

Maybe there will be an opportunity to point out the price that Underhill has had to pay.

Maybe there will be an opportunity to tell all, the true price of hosting the Olympics.

Coun Tim Munro, Portland.