It must be fairly obvious that when Brighton and Hove's small shops thrive, the money made stays mostly in our local economy because those shops are owned and staffed by local people.

Money made by the big stores, owned by national and multi-national multiples, will largely disappear out of town, all except the paltry shop wages. The council and the city's big voices should surely be supporting small businesses as much as possible and small shops in particular.

Roger French, a man who runs a private company that has promised more than £600,000 of taxpayers money and who has always insisted that his bus routes must lead to the big shops at Churchill Square, carried advertising on his buses for people to shop at County Mall in Crawley during the Christmas period.

Brighton and Hove Buses and Coach Company have further been promised massive infrastructure handouts to make vital routes into bus lanes, ignoring growing doubts about PM10 pollutants from diesel engines, when forward thinking towns like Croydon and Sheffield are changing to the obvious solution, modern electric trams.

Don't our hard working small businesses deserve better treatment from the Labour Council than to have their rates used to subsidise a monopoly bus company which promotes shopping at multi-national stores in Crawley?

-Russell Hicks, Chairman, Campaign for a Better Brighton and Hove