Mick Toner says local business is making a profit which it should use to pay for Christmas lights (Letters, November 10). This is an assumption.

I had a shop which went bust because of lack of profit. I am well out of the retail business now but am still licking my wounds.

Feet on pavements are what makes a shop's profit, not bums in cars driving to supermarkets, on line shoppers or even a Christmas visit with the kids to see the pretty lights.

Only everyone shopping in Brighton all year round can make it profitable for smaller shops.

Perhaps then, and only then, would traders be able to contribute towards the lights.

The big stores don't care because people already shop there. I bet if you spoke to the smaller shops, they would say they are hanging on by the skin of their teeth.

They have nowhere else to go and bankruptcy for small firms is on the increase.

Although, you could also argue that where a profit is being made, why should it be spent on lights?

Would it to encourage people to shop there in March and April when it's raining? I doubt it.

By then, the lights would be forgotten - assuming you could afford the parking fees or withstand the park-and-ride trauma.

I'm no Scrooge and love Christmas but am just being realistic.

If people support their local shops, then the shops will support them. And then people may see some Christmas lights.

-Colin Branch-Parker, Telscombe Cliffs