The council's latest plan to ban smoking in public places, such as restaurants and bars, ahead of Government legislation, smacks of the absurd and doctrinaire, as well as political self-indulgence.

As restaurant owners, we welcome a nation-wide ban on smoking in public places.

It would make our lives easier but there must be a level playing field for businesses to survive and prosper.

bridge into New Jersey.

Does the council want to repeat this absurdity here? Perhaps councillors are not aware the origins of Brighton's prosperity were the private pleasures of the few but it is now dependant on the public pleasures of the many.

The council has already declared war on cars and, here in Portland Road, Hove, we have what is probably the longest long-stay free car park in the South-East.

Repeated requests to introduce parking restrictions to aid local businesses and customers and to deter commuters who park for free all day have been ignored.

The council was amazed so few bar and restaurant owners had completed applications for new alcohol licenses. I hold two degrees and am still trying to wade through the pages of poorly-worded verbiage produced by some "empire builder".

The so-called "helpful" guide to completing the form is more obtuse than the form itself and frequently refers to the wrong parts of it. Perhaps my degree in Egyptian hieroglyphs will be useful after all.

I strongly urge other businesses and the public to support this plea to the council for it to consider the needs of many businesses, which need a level playing field, and to support local businesses and not continually hinder them.

The council should remember the business rate funds a large part of its activities.

-John Bennett and Richard Cook, Oscar's Restaurant, Hove