A letter published last Friday caused needless offence to two families and we must take more than our fair share of the blame.

The letter from S L, from Lewes, was a strongly-worded attack on motorcyclists for the way he or she alleged they drive on our roads.

Unfortunately, S L chose to quote figures for motorcyclist fatalities from a story published on the previous Tuesday about the death of Giovanni Packham, a father-of-two from Brighton, who had been killed in an accident on his Aprilia motorbike in Battle.

Not surprisingly, members of Mr Packham's family were incensed at S L apparently making a link between his death and reckless riders, especially since an inquest is still to be held.

My humblest apologies to Mr Packham's widow, Karen, and other members of his family.

The letter also upset members of Bill Davey's family because it was accompanied by a picture of motorcyclists in the cortege at his funeral earlier this year.

Mr Davey, a Harley Davidson owner from Whitehawk, died after a stabbing incident outside his home in February.

The picture had been cropped so it didn't show the hearse and the riders' faces pixellated so they couldn't be identified.

However, Mr Davey's daughter, Sarah, understandably recognised the picture since she was shown riding her father's bike and was upset to think that readers would wrongly assume her father, his friends and family were dangerous motorcycle users.

We received the same complaint from Liesa Saunders (nee Gohmann), a friend of Mr Davey and, when at school, of Mr Packham too.

Again, my sincere apologies to Mr Davey's daughter, other family and friends.

Last Friday's letters also contained an error in the one from Jacqueline Krasch, who questioned why Brighton's "circuit touristique" had cost so much.

Jacqueline, of London Road, Brighton, explains: "I wrote £420,000 but the figure printed was only £42,000 which rather spoils the impact!" Quite and sorry.

The what's on in our If it's on . . . section the previous Friday publicised a family day at Borde Hill, near Haywards Heath, but the mention of the free fair rides excluded the fact they were only for under-12s.

Lin Bradley, from Lewes, was upset when she took her three children along only to find they were all too old to enjoy the rides. Sorry kids.

A story on Tuesday last week about a meeting between Brighton and Hove City Council officials and members of the Traders Against Parking Persecution (Tapp) said the latter were led by Jeff Wood.

It should have said Tapp chairman Jeff Hunt. My apologies and thanks to Tapp colleague and building contractor Roger McArthur, from Southwick.

A feature in our Lifestyle supplement on June 25 on Sarah Crease, the owner of the tiles shop Tilescape, said the business was in The Lanes, Brighton, when, in fact, it is in North Road in the North Laine. Sorry.

Finally, thanks to Mrs W Thayre, of Shoreham, who was "disappointed" to find Claire Petulengro's horoscopes for Monday last week were repeated the following day.

It was our mistake and not Claire's, Mrs T.

I just hope we've printed the right ones today because it is my birthday!