Sooner or later, probably sooner, Brighton and Hove residents will have to pay congestion charges.

The road fund licence does not pay for roads, as its name suggests, so "road tax dodgers" have as much right to drive on a road as any other tax-payer, including cyclists, skateboarders and rollerbladers who, as yet, do not have any clearly-defined means of safely travelling without avoiding parked cars.

Catch 22. The intriguing thing is the privately-owned company (NCP) which patrols our streets dishing out fines also owns many of the city's car parks, which happen to be in the city centre.

So how do tax-paying motorists avoid traffic jams and congestion charges when they have to drive in?

Public transport, you say. Where is it at 4am when the clubs kick out and the parties end? Are taxis considered public transport? Perhaps walking is, too? Perhaps it could all be named movement tax.

What happens if NCP decides it no longer wants the job? Imagine the chaos of a parking attendants' strike.

Nope, things would be exactly the same as they always were.

-D de la Hoyde, Brighton