The new parking restrictions brought in at the area of Brighton and Hove just south of Old Shoreham Road are a disgrace.

The roads are now empty, ticket machines adorn quiet suburban roads (no doubt taking 50p a week), yellow lines are everywhere (even where they don't need to be) and life for people who wish to drive to work (probably now a crime, according to some) is now miserable as there is nowhere to park.

The residents in these streets probably don't mind either way as there seem to be very few cars in the area at all in the evening, showing evidence of low car ownership.

The people I really feel sorry for now, though, are those living north of Old Shoreham Road.

Those once-empty, leafy avenues are now littered with cars, some old wrecks and many not moved for weeks on end, that never used to be there.

Surely the logical conclusion to all this will be that in two years' time they will have restricted/bay parking, the cars will then move further north still (to Patcham and Withdean), culminating in 2008 with a pay-and-display machine on the Downs?

-Spencer Payne, Baranscraig Avenue, Patcham