IT IS NEVER pleasant when any business fails and people lose their livelihood and often savings ploughed into getting their business off the ground.

I wish the owners and staff of the recently closed Bus Stop restaurant all the best for their next working chapters.

But to headline it blame Brexit is wrong.

Restaurants are a classic example of businesses started with passion and enthusiasm but they are normally entering a marketplace that is pretty well saturated with supply and whether sound plans are drawn up and research into the demand for their product is carried out is likely debatable.

They put their hearts and souls into their efforts, but certainly in somewhere like Brighton, it is a mammoth task to succeed.

Roughly half of small businesses do not make it to their third anniversary and I wouldn’t be surprised if restaurants fared worse.

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The economy works in cycles, the last recession was ten years ago, so it would be normal to expect a downturn is/was due and those people who are more risk adverse will be cautious with their spending.

The venture capitalists poured millions into the hospitality industry in recent years as all the bigger chains of eateries embarked on huge expansions, to the detriment of small independent restaurants.

Much more choice has been made available for diners and as a result, there is less coming in for the smaller operations.

Rent alone must be crippling on the size of many establishments on high streets given the size of the premises. But as can often be the case, dreams are not always fulfilled. In time and upon reflection, it’s often possible to understand why things didn’t work out, but sometimes the answer can simply be, it just didn’t.

Brexit is being used a bit too much as an excuse, in my opinion.

Let’s put some more suspects on the table. Global downturn, the China-US trade war, printed funny money run out to stimulate the economy, wages not keeping up with spending, less foreign students coming to our city, more choice for the consumers, the internet killing high streets.

Or a classic, sometimes things just are.

Gordon White, Portslade