As one who cares about the City of Brighton and Hove, I am enraged by the front-page article (The Argus, August 31) about the graffiti attack on the nine as yet unused Electrostar units stored behind Brighton station. The carriages are part of a £216 million order for South Central.

The reason for my rage is not only the mindless vandalism. Rather, it is because I am just one of those who has worked and petitioned for several years for proper action to be taken against this daily mutilation of our city. I am disgusted to read, yet again, the hot air "quotations" The Argus published - from Turner, Caplin, Oxley, Elgood and Fanshawe - none of whom suggests any serious action to tackle this problem.

The area around Brighton station is permanently vandalised by graffiti writers. Talk to the residents of Terminus Road and you will meet scores of people, some

of whom are re-painting the front walls of their homes up to 20 times a year in a futile attempt to keep their dwellings from looking like a slum. Just a few days after each repainting, the same "tags" re-appear. The culprits are obviously local and the association of the most common tags indicates offenders work in pairs.

The police excuse is that they are underfunded and understaffed. Yet, often we are reminded of the success of the New York police in cleaning up their city. Anyone who is familiar with what took place in that city will know that, in the first instance, steps were taken against the graffiti artists. The New York subway was transformed - disfigurement of the subway trains disappeared. Sussex Police might do well to emulate the NYPD.

Surely the time has come for setting up local rank-and-file residents' committees to discuss how we might identify the culprits.

-Dr Bob Potter, Addison Road, Hove