Park-and-ride is the worst option available to try to solve Brighton and Hove's traffic problems.

It will entail development north of the bypass and a visual blight on the Downs.

Playing fields at Waterhall and Braypool would be lost, with no alternatives to replace them.

As more people see the car as a suitable method to get into Brighton and Hove, the finances of the few bus routes to the rural areas outside the city and train journeys to the city would be jeopardised.

There would be an increase in road traffic as the train and bus services diminished, with a consequent increase in greenhouse gas emission.

I acknowledge that the freer flow of traffic in the city would reduce such gas emission there but I contend this would be more than offset by the increase in emissions as more people travelled greater distances to the park-and-ride site.

There is an alternative: More and better subsidised bus and rail services to and from places outside the city; better publicity so the public is aware of these services; taxing workplace parking, an option already legally available to Brighton and Hove City Council, ploughing the money raised back into public transport, and an integrated public transport authority, covering East and West Sussex and Brighton and Hove, to allow better-planned, joined-up ticketing and transport.

This, in turn, would attract many more people back on to buses and trains.

A further alternative would be congestion charging for those entering the city before midday.

This would ensure that commuters and day-trippers paid the true cost of their effect on the city.

Yes, some trade would be lost initially but, as the quality of life in the city improved, business and leisure opportunities would improve, too.

-Nick Hearn, Brighton