I am amazed, considering the dire financial position Brighton and Hove City Council is in, it should be sending envoys abroad at the expense of taxpayers (February 7).

And the response by council leader Ken Bodfish (The Argus, February 8) to criticisms made of that exercise was absurd and fanciful.

Ken, above all, having had strong connections with Brighton and Hove for a considerable time, knows better than most the city as a tourist attraction is "self-seeding" and needs no propagating.

For right or wrong reasons, history books tell us that before the modern-day fad of jetting envoys off to far-away places and even before the days of aviation Brighton was always a favourite seaside tourist attraction, bursting at the seams anyway, not as a result of having been promoted.

There is no evidence to suggest things are any different today, in spite of economic meltdown.

And for Ken to say hotels and restaurants would go out of business if Councillor Mark Barnard had a hand in running the city illustrates the naivety of those in charge of the city's purse strings.

Make no mistake, the biggest threat to the tourist industry of Brighton and Hove today is not a lack of promoting the place but the loony enemy within, intent on gridlocking the city with crazy traffic schemes.

Nor should we forget the council is already licking its lips at the prospect of introducing toll charges.

The council, in sending envoys abroad and knowing it would have to increase council taxes this year by some five times the rate of inflation, is guilty of maladministration of the public purse and should be ordered to pay it back.

-Eric South, Glenfall Avenue, Brighton