I was surprised by The Argus's front-page story about Brighton and Hove Bus and Coach Company "freezing" its prices (December 18).

Over the past four years or so, the "centre fare" bus prices have consistently increased many times above the rate of inflation, from 60p to 70p (16.6 per cent), from 70p to 80p (14 per cent) and, last year, from 80p to £1 (making a whopping 25 per cent increase).

While I appreciate this latest increase also resulted in some reductions for longer journeys, it still appears the vast majority of journeys are within the old "centre fare" area.

I also understand, despite the "freezing" of prices (at least for the time being), the bus company is still on track for making a tidy profit but, then again, this isn't really surprising considering prices have gone up almost as much as the house prices in recent years.

Don't get me wrong, I do think we have quite a good bus service in our city, I just think we have to pay a bit too much for it.

-Simon Darrington, Russell Crescent, Brighton