As a member of the sustainable transport forum, I received information from Brighton and Hove City Council on the proposed A23 "transport corridor". I wonder, however, whether the residents of Patcham, Prestonville and the Preston Park area were also provided with this information.

How will the residents of Patcham feel when, in the absence of an official park-and-ride site, thousands of frustrated commuters start using their residential area as the unofficial one?

How will the residents of Prestonville feel when the southbound right turn at South Road is banned? Or will the residents behind Preston Park be happy with the extra thousands of cars daily wending their way through their streets in a bid to regain the main route?

Our city still has more commuters coming into it than leaving it every day. The A23 is one of the main access routes for those members of the workforce, as well as our tourists, who contribute to the healthy economy of this city. The transport corridor and the effect it will have on this economy has to be carefully considered.

If it is laying the path for park-and-ride, it must be completed with the proper site simultaneously. If it is merely a pseudo-environmental exercise to squeeze the motorist, it must be abandoned.

Comments on the proposal must be submitted to Brighton and Hove City Council by April 27, 2001.

-Ann Townsend, chairman, Brighton and Hove Federation of Small Businesses