Anybody who goes out and about in a quest for culture would have realised the films on show at the Duke of York's attract a tonier audience than the popcorn-guzzlers for whom the Odeon's screens are largely designed.

It has been clear for some while the Duke of York's could find room for an extra screen or two (as is the case at its cinema on Walton Street, Oxford).

This could have been readily achieved here without all the expense and palaver of taking over the fire station and the problems this could bring that neighbourhood.

There was, until recently, a cinema on East Street with three screens of a size that could have well suited those films for which the Duke of York's finds an audience.

But what happened? Boringly, it has been given over to yet another restaurant, casino, blah, blah, blah.

When will Brighton and Hove City Council learn that people are not forever willing to spend money in such places, that they would rather use precious funds to enjoy something worthwhile and enduring, such as a movie of a calibre to be found at the Duke of York's?

A walk back from Brighton on Saturday evening along Western Road and Church Road showed that many restaurants had scant custom.

Hoteliers report that trade is down considerably this year, as do taxi drivers.

If the tag Capital of Culture is to mean anything, it should be to recognise that culture exists in its own right, not as some fanciful adjunct to a spend-up.

-Christopher Hawtree, Westbourne Gardens, Hove