If Gary Kemp remembers Brighton's old library as "beautiful and spacious" (Letters, November 8) I think we can treat his rose-tinted recollections of 1984 with much scepticism.
Things I remember from that year are the non-pedestrianisation of places such as the Lanes and North Laine, Churchill Square exuding the charm of a concrete gun emplacement, the Pavilion falling to bits and the seafront a dingy, depressing mess.
The notion that Brighton and Hove City Council is responsible for people moving into the city - or trendy cafes - is almost comical.
The council doesn't open trendy cafes and has invited nobody to move here from London.
It just happens. It's called freedom. If you get out more, you notice it's happening everywhere as people bail out of London while cashing in on their inflated house prices.
Even places such as sleepy Godalming in Surrey or Whitstable in Kent are now festooned with the same trendy cafes and bars we have here and they haven't won city status.
If we are not to be Capital of Culture, Mr Kemp can help us become the capital of blame culture.
-Coun Ken Bodfish, Leader, Brighton and Hove City Council
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