It seems Brighton and Hove City Council is intent on imposing a residents' parking scheme on the Goldsmid area against the wishes of most residents (I saw the proposals pinned to lamp-posts).

The parking debate has been engineered by some bright spark at the council as a way of raising extra revenue.

It was started simply by the introduction of pay-and-display on Hove seafront, which had the effect of forcing the residents of seafront squares, who could not park in the squares, to park further north, in turn forcing everyone further inland.

What will happen when the area north of Old Shoreham Road is full of cars? I see another unpopular scheme on the horizon.

If the council is truly interested in the feelings of the residents, now is the ideal opportunity to suspend the seafront restrictions for the winter as an experiment.

The shortfall in revenue would be negligible and we might find a simpler (and cheaper) solution to the parking problem. If it works, the council has a simple decision to make: Profit or local service.

If the council is not willing to try this experiment, it will prove it is only interested in extracting the maximum amount of money from residents.

As a road tax and council tax payer, I will be inclined to deduct any residents' parking permit cost from my council tax payment and urge everyone to follow suit.

-Mike James, Cissbury Road, Hove