As a regular visitor and admirer of Brighton, I am much saddened by the extent of street drinking.

The new initiatives to deal with this appear misconstrued.

Making street drinking illegal will only push the problem under the carpet and the police may end up spending their time chasing drinkers around town.

Street drinking is clearly symptomatic of a deeper problem - addiction in general and the availability of alcohol from every conceivable outlet day and night.

The consumption of alcohol is encouraged by Government and commercial interests (no health warnings on bottles of booze).

The by-product of this is the chronic alcoholism which blights Brighton and other cities.

This is the tip of an iceberg, the repercussions of which may spoil more than just a day out to Brighton.

-M Cotton, Mid Sussex