I WONDER if your esteemed organ would lend its support, and/or launch a campaign to change the appalling conditions at Poole Valley bus terminus.

There is no enclosed shelter, no toilets, and weary travellers are exposed to the worst excesses of the British weather at all hours. The only ‘attraction’, it seems to me, are the stupid lights set into the paving. To what avail? Is it really necessary to light the way up ones trouser-leg? What ‘planner’ came up with that idea?

I can tell you that in all my travels around the world the bus terminus at Poole Valley is the worst in the whole of Western Europe and, in all probability, worse than anything that can be found in the outer reaches of Bongo Bongo Land. It is an absolute disgrace and it’s about time something was done.

What kind of advert is it to the thousands of visitors and students who flock here every year – what message are they taking home?

I’m not sure who is responsible: if it is Brighton and Hove Council then, surely, someone of influence ought to have the backbone to lean on them in some way to improve matters; if it is another body then it might be suggested that their licence to operate be withdrawn until such time that the travelling public are properly protected from the elements and have somewhere warm to wait for the arrival of their buses.

It is only a matter of time before gleefully expectant undertakers are carting off stiff, brittle-boned pensioners, whose only crime was to expire while awaiting their connection to Gatwick Airport.

Derek Schofield, Brighton