So, Mr Radtke, who owns three restaurants, is having "sleepless nights" because "drinkers and beggars have got control" (The Argus, July 21).

He should spend a night bedding down with the people (who own nothing) who he complains sleep rough behind his restaurant in all weathers and see what a sleepless night is really like.

Then perhaps he could spend a day "walking up and down St James's Street" with no money, nowhere to go, being ignored or abused.

I have lived and worked in and around St James's Street for five years and the vast majority of homeless on the street are not aggressive - just penniless, sometimes desperate and, yes, often drunk.

But perhaps aggression and abuse are not the real problem? Perhaps Mr Radtke simply finds these people an eyesore and a nuisance who eat into the profits of his large restaurant and spoil the area for his "nice" customers.

His views - and those of the "St James's Street Action Group" - are only too clear: The homeless and alcoholics are scum and should be removed.

What Mr Radtke and his friends forget is the homeless and alcoholics who share this street are actually people, many of whom have lived there longer than Mr Radtke's restaurant has been there and have as much right to remain as anyone else.

Instead of putting out newsletters demonising others and calling on the police to "take action", perhaps the "Action Group" might be thankful they have not - through family breakdown, bankruptcy, mental illness or sheer bad luck - found themselves with nowhere to live or a drug or alcohol problem?

Then perhaps they might invest their energy into lobbying MPs for funding for detox programmes, education and housing for some of the most vulnerable.

Then St James's Street might be a nicer place to live.

-Benjamin Coleman, Brighton