IN HIS latest weekly Argus column Phelim Mac Cafferty, the leader of Brighton and Hove City Council, came up with ways that he believes the city could be improved.

Well, they were his thoughts on the subject and now here are mine.

His intention is to send out warning letters to 'big business', as he calls it, and landlords for not removing graffiti from their property, whereas I would issue them to the Chief Constable and the Police and Crime Commissioner. After all, it's not the fault of property owners that their buildings have been plastered with tagging, graffiti and 'street art' but, instead, the almost total lack of police constables and community support officers patrolling the city's streets and acting as deterrents to all this mindless vandalism.

READ MORE: Pictures: Hove seafront targeted by graffiti vandals

It is PCC Katy Bourne and the head of Sussex Police, Jo Shiner, who need to step up to the mark and get the city looking less like a slum and more like the premier seaside resort that it is reputed to be.

He complains that National Express have not built new toilet facilities at the Coach Station in Pool Valley and then goes on to boast about the 135 new trees that his council has planted nearby. Silly me, I thought only dogs used them when they needed a wee but, when push comes to shove, I guess they are better than nothing when us males, at least, have a pressing to need to 'go'.

He also informed us that, amongst other things, Phase 3 of the Valley Gardens regeneration project will include the installation of new benches.

Perhaps, in his next column, he can tell us how long he thinks it will be before they are removed, just like others in the Old Steine area have been, because they become frequented by the usual horde of street drinkers which tends to congregate in this area of the city.

Finally, according to Councillor Mac Cafferty, there was a reduction in Sussex of 520 police officers and 83 community support personnel between 2010 and 2020, a statement that paints a somewhat different picture to that depicted by the county's Crime Commissioner.

For example, only a couple of months ago, she said in her weekly newsletter that, in the last financial year, that were an extra 179 officers recruited through the Government uplift and the rise in the police precept of local council tax, and that plans for 2021/22 would see Sussex Police achieve a net increase of another 117 on top of that.

The leader of the council says less and less officers, the leader of the police says more and more. They can't both be right, can they?

Eric Waters

Lancing