Mark Taggart's parking problems in Brighton, which obliged him to spend the day in Worthing instead (Argus, February 21), must have been very frustrating.

However, it does demonstrate Brighton's remarkable success as a visitor destination. To have every single parking space in town occupied is probably a problem Worthing would like to share with us.

But to identify the problem as insufficient city centre parking spaces would be a mistake. We actually have the same number of spaces as other cities of similar profile but lack other transport options that might give people more choice about bringing their cars into the city.

It is ironic that at a time when we are getting eight million visitors a year, our train service has deteriorated drastically and we still don't have a proper park-and-ride service.

More car parking spaces are not the answer because we don't have enough road space to accommodate any extra traffic.

A park-and-ride on the outskirts would eliminate almost 700,000 vehicle movements a year from the city centre. This might go some way to alleviating Mr Taggart's problem, which turned Worthing's gain into our loss.

-Tony Mernagh, Brighton Town Centre Business Forum