What a second-rate city we have become. Where else allows its prize asset to be embedded with a million shards of glass?

Where else do traders coin it and then lazily refuse to even sweep and bleach the pavement in front of their premises?

Where else does an incompetent civic leadership do nothing to protect the reputation and attractiveness of the city to visitors and investors?

Where else do they hire deckchairs to unsuspecting visitors with barefoot children without one single warning sign anywhere that there are litter hazards on the beach?

Let us hand the city charter back to the Queen for safe keeping, to be returned once we have matured a bit as a community.

On an even more serious note, stories I am hearing indicate the situation at Brighton station on Saturday night was extremely grave.

An inquiry that could ultimately provide evidence for criminal charges against anyone found to have imperilled public safety is absolutely essential if the city is to maintain its reputation as a safe and reliable location that conference organisers and others wish to use.

To those who still believe there is a clever logo for this town, I have two words that are appropriate since Saturday: Anywhere else.

-Neil Grant, Compton Avenue, Brighton