I helped organise and took part in the Parking protest by Traders Against Parking Persecution (Tapp) on Monday.

Tapp members and I were furious to read Councillor Simon Battle's comment that it was reasonable to expect traders to pay to park (The Argus, August 20).

It just goes to prove councillors do not listen to anything. We have always said we are willing to pay for a fairer scheme.

The protest on Monday was nothing to do with paying for parking. It was to object to Brighton and Hove City Council still doing nothing to resolve the traders' parking problems and, after four months, still blatantly ignoring our requests.

By making this statement, Coun Battle is trying to hide the fact the council does not know how to resolve the problem and discredit the traders.

At two meetings, Tapp has suggested other parking schemes for traders but it seems the council will not make the vast profits from these schemes, which is why they are dismissed.

This problem will still be on going when the next local elections are here.

With Labour receiving such bad publicity, why has council leader Ken Bodfish not made any kind of contact with Tapp to try to sort this out? Perhaps he and the council have outstayed their welcome.

-Roger McArthur, Tapp, Southwick