Violet Osborne raises an important debate about whether we should preserve existing amenities such as Stanmer Park before developing new things like the i360 (Letters, April 8).

However, increasingly we are going to find that new things will be needed to pay for the upkeep of old things.

A crucial fact we all need to grasp is that public services in Brighton and Hove have never, in their history, had such a large gap between the money they need and the public funding they get.

Governments no longer fund councils to the extent they used to. We are losing £80 million of public funding over the next five years.

This means councils are now required to find new ways of generating money.

Ms Osborne mentions much-needed repairs for the seafront. She’s right.

So the plan there is to use £1 million a year plus earnings from the i360 to help pay for things such as seafront repairs.

The i360 is not a “toy”. Without its revenue it’s hard to see how we’ll ever pay to maintain the seafront.

At Stanmer Park we’re currently running a public consultation with a view to a major, beautiful restoration. See the council website to get involved. As well as wonderful historic landscaping and restoring 16 listed buildings, the plan would include making the place more secure from unauthorised vehicles.

The council’s Cityparks team has delivered the hugely-popular restoration of The Level and we want an equally prestigious scheme tailored for Stanmer. This would need to be funded by a lottery bid – again, there’s nowhere near enough council cash available.

So it’s not a choice between new and old. Without new schemes bringing money to the city, there can be no future for our past.

Councillor Pete West, Green, Brighton and Hove City Council