I notice with some consternation that the parking fasciste have finally arrived in Painters Corner, the last bastion of parking freedom before the Old Shoreham Road.

As a resident of the area, I do have concerns about the parking problem, made considerably worse by the ungenerous use of the area as a haven for the vehicles of commuters and shoppers alike.

However, my apprehension is more specifically located in the handling of this issue by Brighton and Hove City Council which, just a year ago, gave its assurance that there were "no plans" to extend the parking scheme north of Poets Corner, while insidiously launching the latter scheme to coincide with the autumn conference season and inflating the "parking problem" beyond reason.

Thereafter, while residents' views have been canvassed by the council, as indeed were those of our southern area neighbours, a full and honest account of the outcome of either enquiry seems never to have been made public beyond the speculative assumption of universal acceptance for parking restrictions. I have yet to meet anyone who fully agrees, much less regards these plans as anything more than the knock-on consequence of poorly defined local policy, and would be most interested to see the statistical arguments for myself.

That this town is suffocated with vehicles is beyond question as, indeed, is the extraordinary revenue raised by these excessive and ugly schemes that seem to contribute little more than ill-feeling and additional street furniture to our already over-crowded local community.

What continues to defy belief is the tacit lack of long-term strategies to alleviate the crisis, beginning of course with a more realistic subsidy of public transport as an indisputable incentive to park and ride.

Never believe the tourists will stop coming to Brighton and Hove because they need their cars.

  • G Miles, Prinsep Road, Hove