WHEN the chairwoman of the Brighton and Hove Tourism Alliance is shunning the city to do her Christmas shopping, you know there's a problem.

Soozie Campbell tells The Argus today she drives to Lewes to pick up her presents, such is the problem with parking in Brighton and Hove.

There fear is that many others are now joining her.

For many years the city has had a troubled relationship with parking.

Space, as with many things in Brighton and Hove, is the issue.

Recent administrations have employed the tactic of hiking up prices in order to make as much money as possible from drivers.

While this is good in one sense, in that there is more money going into council coffers, it makes visiting the city a costly experience.

And this is where the council must take care.

You can have the Pavilions and i360s you want, if you are paying through the nose to park, people are not going to bother coming.

As councillor Gill Mitchell points out, there is no real alternative for getting down here - especially for Londoners.

Govia Thameslink has reduced our rail network to such a mess that people won't go anywhere near the trains anymore.

The council needs to strike a balance.

There must be a charge for parking. But it must be an fair amount.

The fear is the damage is already done. We already have a reputation of being an expensive place to park.

In October we reported that the number of day trippers coming to Brighton and Hove has dropped by almost 1 million people in one year.