I was amazed to see the headline last Friday, "Council pay up 40 per cent" (Argus, July 6).

Is this the same totally incompetent Brighton and Hove City Council that has failed to organise a rubbish collection system over several years and has allowed our city to turn into a rubbish tip and a public health hazard?

That has allowed a multi-million pound industrial estate at Woodingdean, owned by the city, to decay into a vandalised ruin and health hazard?

That has allowed one parking control contract to end before organising its replacement, thereby creating parking anarchy in our city for weeks on end?

That undertakes major roadworks in our city at the peak of the season and the middle of the day, thereby creating traffic chaos?

That seems keen on allowing every building in our once-beautiful city centre to be turned into a pub or fast-food take-away.

And that has left the seafront area around the Palace Pier looking like a boarded-up building site for several years?

If we are talking about the same council, I suggest those councillors and council officers responsible for the above be given a 40 per cent pay cut or the sack. They really are a quite incompetent lot and my ten-year-old son could do a lot better.

-Ben Nash, Brighton