Not so long ago, you could park of an evening at the Church Street NCP car park in Brighton for a reasonable rate - if memory serves, £2 or even slightly less.

With immaculate timing, just ahead of last year's Brighton Festival, this rate was more than doubled, catching all those attending cultural events at the Dome, Corn Exchange, Pavilion Theatre or Theatre Royal with an increase way ahead of inflation.

Now, when you approach the car park, you will be greeted by posters boasting that you can park for 40p but, fellow motorists, be sure to read the small print, which will reveal this to be the rate for just 15 minutes.

On top of that, the night rate has now been abolished, so in order to park for long enough to have a quick meal and attend the wonderful Joan Baez concert at the Dome recently, I found myself being charged £8.

What is even more galling is that, as there is now no night rate, there is no possibility of paying in advance so everyone has to queue to pay after their play or concert. As they wait, their parking charge goes inexorably up as they cross into the next 15-minute period.

On the night of the Baez concert, one pay machine was out of order and the queue stretched back into the road so that huge numbers of people were paying for the privilege of being kept standing in the rain.

No company should be allowed to treat its customers in this way and no council should allow it to happen.

Rates like this cannot but damage patronage of both local restaurants and our cultural centres and the Dome for one cannot afford to see this type of opportunism at work on its doorstep.

In adopting such a vehement anti-car stance, Brighton needs to remember that to be persuaded to use public transport, one first needs it to be available and that many of us who live outside the city are served by neither buses nor trains.

-Chris Coleman, Kingston, near Lewes