I have just returned from spending a week in Brighton, a place I have known and visited for many years. My uncle was a councillor and businessman in the Fifties and my sister did her nurse training at the Royal Sussex County Hospital and Hove General, later marrying into a Brighton family. I have a son living in the area as well as many relations, hence a certain affiliation to the city.

Last week, I counted no less than six commercial-type motor vehicles, including horse boxes, parked in Dyke Road Drive, Brighton, either with expired or no tax disc at all, in addition to othersimilar vehicles (taxed), many seemingly being used as places of abode, others perhaps abandoned.

Similar vehicles were parked around the area of Preston Park and, for the weekend of the Golden Jubilee, at least one of the "homes" was moved and parked down by the seafront.

This is my fourth visit to Brighton this year and, on each occasion, I have noted the presence of such living arrangements. Surely Brighton and Hove City Council does not condone this type of use of the public highway? Is it not an offence to use a vehicle parked on the public highway as a place of residence? Surely there are also health and safety issues that should be addressed?

While on the subject of health and safety, surely it is an offence for many of the residences of Dyke Road Drive to leave their household rubbish on the public footpath for the best part of a week. The same day the waste is collected, new piles begin. This practice must contribute to health risks and may be the reason I saw a rat in Preston Park.

Lastly, it may or may not be connected to the two issues above but I have noted discarded syringes lying on the footpath in Dyke Road Drive. Perhaps I was wrong to do nothing about them at the time but, being disabled, I have enough problems avoiding the rubbish on this steep slope and so left them lying. However, I feel such items must be a danger to the public, especially children.

-Barry John, Hamble Road, Brickhill, Bedford