I am concerned the new parking scheme seems to bypass appropriate consultation in our area. Its plan has been exhibited at the Coptic Church and Hove Town Hall from July 9 until today.

That means there was only one weekend for visiting the plans and that happened to be in the holiday season and coincided with the biggest beach party.

Last time, every household received a map of the proposal and a form to reply. This time, there is a distinct lack of feedback forms. We have been given no time to prepare any comments en masse.

In fact, any comment forms had to be instigated by neighbours. Brighton and Hove City Council is clearly hoping the short time-scale and lack of forms sent out will lead to apathy.

Last time, 542 signatures were collected on a petition because the scheme did not address residents' desire for calmer and safer roads.

The council's web site promises priority for residents' parking. The only detail is a table of streets with marks in columns for short or long-term parking.

At first, I was happy to see the new ratio of less long-term ten-hour parking. But that in turn raised questions about visitor permits, especially for households that have driveways or garages.

As there is no published commitment to a lot of vital detail, the main path of consultation is now the freephone helpline (call 0800 028 6702).

The new scheme will make the use of cars even less efficient, because long-term parking has been effectively increased by changing all two-hour bays to four hours.

The old scheme did not discourage enough workers from taking their cars to work but the new scheme invites all workers in the area to change their parking arrangements at midday.

-Peter Matzke, Avondale Road, Hove