THE public protests in our city during the pandemic are putting a great deal of pressure on our police and health authorities.

I feel sorry for Sussex Police who have a difficult enough job as it is.

Many of these protests are self-inflicted events caused by policy errors made by the council.

For example, the Old Shoreham Road temporary cycle lane protest (Anti cycle lane protesters gather outside Hove Town Hall, The Argus, August 21) and domestic violence services protest (Protests against lost contract on Brighton seafront, The Argus, February 27) were both caused by policy blunders by the Labour council.

Ridiculously, both these protests were joined and led by Labour MPs and councillors whose party caused the problems in the first place.

At one protest outside Hove Town Hall a Labour councillor who voted to keep the Old Shoreham Road cycle lane a week earlier then turned up to protest against it the following week, having a picture in The Argus giving a speech to the crowd. You couldn't make it up.

If Labour, including this councillor, had made better decisions, there would have been no need for these protests that are putting pressure on the police and health authorities in the first place.

Cllr Dawn Barnett

Hangleton and Knoll ward