Council leader Ken Bodfish's reply to Lib Dem Councillor Mark Barnard about city spending on foreign trips for councillors and officials is gratuitously personal and unwarranted.

Coun Barnard merely reflects legitimate concerns about how public funds are spent.

Recall the sad spectacle of Liverpool's council leader Derek Hatton - a Labour administration - scuttling around his city in a taxi issuing redundancy notices because his council went bust?

So, because Brighton and Hove City Council plans to spend millions, doubling spending on foreign trips for councillors is somehow okay and, by a neat sleight of pen, becomes "a relatively small investment in tourism".

The fact is the city spends beyond its means and only council house sales have saved it from going bust. With a ten per cent rise last year, council tax is set for a further 20 per cent hike next.

A sinister double whammy also looms with the Government's plans to block council house sales along with its aim of subsidising the "poor North" through shifting grants away from the "affluent South".

This, despite Brighton and Hove having some of the most deprived communities in the UK.

So, with dwindling reserves, the revenue from council house sales blocked and even less government grants, the council plans to spend still more.

Of course we all want to see spending increasing on children and schools, elderly and disabled people, social care and hospitals and healthcare.

But it must be fair, responsible and affordable spending that does not leave Brighton and Hove bust.

-Keith W D Jago, Uplands Road, Brighton