Simon Fanshawe's Place to Be updates have turned into political tirades which seem to have no relevance to the job he was employed to do. Most recently, for example, he suggests if the railways had not been privatised the Brighton Station site could have been developed without the need for finance from a superstore (Argus, October 12).

He goes on to suggest the railway regulators and operators' greed is responsible for the recent poor safety record.

My own experience from commuting to London daily over 25 years was one of a railway always short of money. Carriages never appeared to be replaced and the decades of neglect were obvious.

Disputes led to go-slows and strikes and at one stage drivers carried baseball bats to protect themselves from irate passengers. Between 1988 and 1991 there were six serious accidents in which 46 people died and 564 were injured.

There must have been an outcry but at this time British Rail was owned by the public and run by the public so there was no one to blame but the public.

But what does this have to do with The Place to Be campaign?

-Ken Chambers, Whippingham Road, Brighton