Roger French, managing director of Brighton and Hove Bus and Coach Company describes the congestion and worsening air quality in parts of central Brighton (Letters, April 9).

This problem faces many cities and is very serious. His proposed solution, a park-and-ride car park outside town sounds reasonable until we look at the results of previous park-and-ride schemes in the UK.

1 Park-and-ride does not decrease congestion. All independent studies show it leaves it at present levels or increases it. This alone makes a nonsense of park-and-ride as a proposed solution to inner-city congestion.

2 Park-and-ride increases car use generally and makes people undertake two-stage, indirect journeys.

3 Two locations under consideration are both in the aquifier zone so Brighton's drinking water is under threat from pollution.

4 Braypool and Patcham Court Farm are a long way from the city centre so it is doubtful many would undertake such a lengthy bus journey with accompanying waiting times. Were the park-and-ride site ten minutes from the town centre, it might have a better chance of being used.

5 The extra buses and drivers would be backed by council subsidy leading to council tax increases.

For a town hemmed in by the Downs to the north and the sea to the south, park-and-ride makes no sense.

An integrated public transport system would serve Sussex's city centres far better and provide Roger French with an environmentally positive mission. Park-and-ride is environmentally negative.

The use of public transport without a car journey is the ideal. Minibus services to and from local railway stations would be a very good start.

Not park-and-ride - just ride.

-Robin Clark, Brighton