Adam Trimingham says the Brighton Centre is a municipal millstone and the sooner it is disposed of, the better (The Argus, February 28).

I take exception to this view and would like to set the record straight.

The Brighton Centre cost £10 million and has repaid this debt many times over. Its business is as buoyant as ever and next year we will host 38 major conferences, with a delegate spend of £146 per day. This amounts to more than £30.4 million into the local economy.

The building also stages 120 entertainment performances, selling more than 250,000 tickets. This, along with other exhibitions and private events, makes the centre one of the busiest venues in the UK.

Business tourism is one of the city's most important industries and the centre is the catalyst for this. Business and leisure visitors help sustain 13,000 jobs and inject more than £380 million into Brighton and Hove annually.

The centre has, over the past 25 years, helped transform Brighton from a decaying seaside resort into an international conference location.

With regard to the carpets looking old and his disappointing catering experience, I am sure Adam will be pleased to hear that we are about to complete the re-carpeting of the venue along with other refurbishment.

The catering operation is run privately and we have now appointed new caterers, Crown Venue Catering, one of the country's leading companies, who come into the building at the beginning of April.

Rather than a millstone, the centre is a jewel and should be nurtured.

It continues to operate at a high level with limited resources and attracts high-profile events such as the Labour Party Conferences in 2004 and 2005.

It may not be the most attractive building on the seafront but beauty is skin-deep and underneath is the heart that drives the economy of this fair city.

As a board member of the International Association of Congress Centres, I meet and speak with industry colleagues from around the world.

There are centres in industrial cities that would snap our hands off to be in the position of Brighton, a prime seafront location, top quality hotels and a vibrant cosmopolitan city. Rather than getting rid of this wonderful resource to a private operator, it should be on top of the council's portfolio of prized possessions.

Steve Piper

-The Brighton Centre