It's depressing to see NCP and Brighton and Hove City Council teaming up to raise Parking fees in the city's car parks (The Argus, June 27) but does it really matter?

Travelling into Brighton is prohibitively expensive for anyone with a family - with three small children I face a bus fare of more than £10.

Parking in Churchill Square costs £6 for six hours but overstay one minute and the charge doubles. Onstreet parking averages £3 per hour.

Although I live in Hove, I haven't been shopping in the centre for more than a year.

Parking and public transport are simply too expensive, stressful and inconvenient.

However, thanks to Ocado, eBay and Amazon.co.uk, I don't need to and, clearly, others feel the same because while cities such as Manchester, Birmingham and Leeds are graced with imaginative leisure developments and new department stores such as Harvey Nicks and Selfridges, Brighton's retail offer has become increasingly stagnant, shabby and down-at-heel.

The local traders quoted in your article must accept their customers are likely to be day-visiting tourists and the fashionable but cashstrapped young.

Middle-class families and the affluent have rejected the city and found other alternatives.

-Peter Murphy, Hove