It is somewhat disingenuous of Councillor Jenny Barnard-Langston to accuse Brighton and Hove City Council of phoney consultation over the introduction of controlled parking.

She suggests in Goldsmid the council is forcing through a scheme as part of some sinister citywide policy. In fact, it responded to a campaign by residents to solve a serious and worsening problem in the ward. Coun Barnard-Langston should know - this time last year she presented our petition calling for a residents' parking scheme to the council.

Likewise, she seems to have forgotten that Goldsmid's parking problems go back to the time when she was still a Conservative. Indeed, her first husband, Steve Langston, was a leading light in trying to have some form of controlled parking introduced here before his untimely death last year.

Coun Barnard-Langston implies the majority of Goldsmid residents oppose controlled parking.

Yet if only five per cent bothered to make their feelings known during the latest phase of a three-year consultation process (including those who welcome a scheme), it was a remarkably silent protest.

The truth, I suspect, is that spending as much time as she does on education matters throughout the city (Letters, October 26), Coun Barnard-Langston has lost touch with the day-to-day needs of most people in her own ward.

Fortunately for us, Labour councillors such as Vince Meegan and Simon Battle are listening to residents. I am a member of no political party but have already decided which way I will be voting in the local elections next May.

-Brian Williams, York Avenue, Hove