While I do not condone traders blocking the streets as a means of protest, Brighton and Hove City Council has left the city-centre parking issue far from resolved.

It is not the traders who ultimately foot the bill for the permit charges but the local residents and traders who employ them.

Traders pass on to their customers not just the charge for the permit but also the time they spend going to get it and then VAT on top.

When road space is limited, it is perfectly reasonable to ration it with a charge, especially when it is used, for example, to improve public transport or even keep down council tax.

But if there is going to be a charge for parking spaces, all local residents and traders should have the right to use them on the same terms.

As things are, city-centre residents, like myself, who do not have a car and thereby help to make the scheme run smoothly, have no access at all to the parking spaces as the council has refused to issue residents' visitor permits in this area.

At the same time, residents who are car-owners are rewarded by being given permits that enable them to park for £80 a year.

This represents a massive subsidy to car-owners from non-car-owners and council tax-payers in general since the council is giving up £3,000-£4,000 a year income for each city-centre parking bay reserved for residents' permit holders. No wonder there is a year-long wait.

This is a serious injustice that needs to be remedied. The council should increase the price of residents' permits to a more realistic amount and, in restricted parking areas, all households who do not have cars should be able to purchase at least a limited number of visitors' parking permits - for use both by residents' visitors and tradesmen working on their premises - at the same rate as the residents' permits.

-Henry Law, Queen's Gardens, Brighton