In all the talk of public transport, no mention has been made of the inadequate facilities of Brighton's Pool Valley bus station.

Pool Valley has no ticket office for the main bus operators into the station. Tickets and information can be had from the One Stop Shop but that is on the north east corner of Old Steine, more than three hundred metres away and out of sight.

One solution would be similar to the central bus station at Heathrow with a new bus station for Stagecoach and National Express buses on the present bays on the south side of the Old Steine, realigned to provide widened stands with one entrance and one exit lane.

Additional passenger facilities could be located on the "beached sailing boat" traffic island south of these bays and connected by the existing traffic-light controlled crossing.

These facilities would be protected by a large, glazed canopy and would include bus timetables, arrival/departure screen displays, ticket machines, toilets, refreshment dispensers and map information, particularly identifying the location of the One Stop Shop and the nearby taxi rank and shelter.

By thus moving the bus station, Pool Valley could be made available to coach tour operators for setting down and picking up passengers.

At present, most coach tour operators use either the Old Steine bus bays or those on Madeira Drive.

These sites have no shelters or other facilities for waiting coach passengers. Further, Madeira Drive is often closed on Sundays.

This means visitors and tour coaches have to set down and pick up in Marine Parade where there are no visitor coach bays. This leads to double parking which is both confusing and dangerous to coach passengers.

After setting down passengers in Pool Valley, the coaches would then be laid over on the bus bays already provided along Madeira Drive east of Dukes Mound.

These are relatively straightforward adjustments that do not require costly land acquisitions while the various facilities could be phased in over time. In Pool Valley only some signs would need to change.

These proposals would result in significantly improved bus and coach facilities for Brighton and Hove.

Interestingly, the Old Steine bays were used recently by National Express for their services when the entrance road to Pool Valley had to be closed for underground utilities repairs so these proposals are half way there.

Who knows, a new bus station in the Old Steine might also stimulate the many environmental improvement schemes that have been put forward over recent years for the War Memorial and for the gardens themselves.

-John Foley, Brighton