What a mess Brighton is in over parking.

First we had a member of the British Association of Motorists threatening to disclose the identities of the parking attendants (August 31).

This move is ill-advised, vindictive and anyway aimed at the wrong people.

His remarks should have been directed at the councillors who are employing the attendants and not at those attendants who, like the citizens and motorists, are just trying to earn a living.

Proper lobbying of those responsible might have achieved something.

Then we had a representative of Brighton and Hove City Council appearing on television making inflammatory remarks about the British Association of Motorists.

His accusations of "stalking" sound strange, considering many could accuse the council of stalking motorists.

The council's action is, after all, only partly a matter of road safety: It is also partly a matter of money-making and the attendants caught in the middle of the controversy are effectively tax collectors.

Some of the motorists are also council taxpayers - for whom the council exists - trying to earn a living and not some sort of public enemy.

It is time for each side to stop pretending it is blameless, to back off and to replace confrontation by calm dialogue.

-Michael Cook, Hartington Road, Brighton