I wouldn't like your readers to be misled by the article last Saturday claiming Brighton and Hove City Council's PR bill had "rocketed".

The article was quite wrong. In fact our publicity costs have gone down.

More than half of the spend mention in your article is down to job advertising.

We are the city's biggest employer and staff recruitment, involving purchasing space in newspapers like The Argus, is an expensive business.

But I doubt that's what most readers think of when the words "public relations" are mentioned.

Of the remaining costs, in 2001/2 the total was £885k and in 2002/3 it fell to £855k - a saving of £30,000. And where does that money go? Here are some examples:

The council is required by law to spend a great deal of money on official, public information notices.

These include: planning and parking notices; street closures; highways notices; statutory audit; approved marriage premises; licensing and many many more.

Again, most of this is spent with The Argus and the Leader. Again, I doubt if it's what readers think of as PR.

Other public information includes campaigns on childcare and foster care recruitment, refuse collection round changes, adult education courses, publicity on recycling, promotion for Brighton Centre events like Holiday On Ice, tourism and conference promotion; advertising of properties for sale or lease, museums leaflets, sports and leisure centre publicity and so on.

Many of these make money and support jobs, either for the city (eg conferences) or for publicly owned venues, eg King Alfred, Stanley Deason.

Others are essential public information like bin collection day. It is hard to see which of these The Argus thinks we should no longer do.

We always look at ways to reduce costs in all our services and we have. The facts prove the article is wrong.

Publicity costs have decreased and, as part of our current budget review, we are looking at ways to decrease them further.

There are many serious issues to be discussed regarding the city's difficult budget position, particularly relating to the costs of looking after children and older people.

I would welcome such a debate, in which The Argus could play an important role. But every debate has to begin with facts, not misrepresentation.

-David Panter, chief executive, Brighton and Hove City Council