REGARDING the new trees planted in the large tubs in North Street, Brighton.

When these tubs were first placed some three or four years ago, they had some very nice trees planted in them.

Sadly over the years following, they have been neglected to the point of all the trees dying.

Recently they have been replaced with new silver birch trees, which looked beautiful.

However, after only about a month, these trees are all dying.

Does nobody ever think of watering them?

Are the council responsible for this, or could the shops, outside of which these trees are planted, not give them a bucket of water every few days?

These large tubs, and the trees in them, must cost a considerable amount of taxpayers' money.

Another gripe of mine is regarding the Steine Gardens around the fountain. Every time we have the Brighton Fringe we have this beautiful green space turned into a very scruffy and ugly building site.

There is now a huge hard-standing space outside St Peter's Church that would be a more suitable site for such temporary buildings.

Even after these buildings are removed after a few weeks, the land takes several weeks to recover.

The gardeners and the council workers work very hard to make this city of Brighton look attractive (and congratulations to them all for doing such a good job) but the council seem oblivious to the fact of how this city looks.

Having said all that, the finished result of the renovation of Valley Gardens is magnificent.

I think the city Ccouncil could do with employing  a stylist.

There is so much we could do to make our wonderful city centre look spectacular, and it needn't cost a fortune if we could persuade local businesses to sponsor.

I would be more than willing to offer my services for free.

John Weeks

Dyke Road

Brighton