I felt I had to respond to the ill-informed comments made by Jon Carter (The Argus, November 21) and indeed a great deal of misinformation with respect to the gates at the New Steine gardens.

A decision was made at the October meeting of the St James’s Area Local Action Team (LAT) that to deter night-time antisocial behaviour, the one functioning gate at the top of the garden (the St James’s Street end) would be locked at dusk from Sunday to Wednesday inclusive (reopening at 9am the following morning). This was to be for a month-long trial period only.

All other gates into the garden would be left unlocked at all times, thereby ensuring local residents would still be able to access the garden. The reason for not locking the top gate from Thursday to Saturday was that Operation Marble was in place on those evenings and therefore an enhanced police presence would be in the area to deter any possible antisocial behaviour.

As chairman of the LAT I thought this was a sensible solution and indeed it is what local residents actively asked for and voted for at that public meeting. As regards not being a representative meeting, I have to disagree as we had almost 40 people attending, including two of the ward councillors, local PCSOs, six senior managers from CityClean and City Parks, as well as a large number of local residents and business owners.

I am not a fan of locking up public spaces and this has not been the case, with the remaining gates to the garden being open to the public, as they should be. But by the simplest act of just locking one top gate on certain nights of the week we have seen a significant drop in antisocial behaviour in that area. May I also point out that the LAT is at the forefront of working with police and other agencies in order to reduce crime and antisocial behaviour in the area and to have a more visible police presence on the streets.

Chris Cooke chairman, St James’ Area LAT
Montague Street, Brighton