It is a pity Keith Patmore (Letters, June 9) does not understand the costs/problems of bus operation, otherwise he would not be suggesting conductors or smaller off-peak buses (or is he going to provide the subsidy required?).

As for motorists owning all roadspace, this is ridiculous. Most roads were built at the same time as houses and so could be regarded as being owned by everyone.

Only roads such as the Brighton bypass could truly be regarded as being financed by motorists.

However, Mr Patmore did usefully highlight problems with the Lewes Road scheme.

Since its introduction, buses can now suffer from delays of several minutes in a previously fairly free-flowing road.

While (say) a three-minute delay may not sound a lot, it greatly reduces the ability of buses to cope with congestion elsewhere on the route and so risks services becoming less reliable and may force the bus company to add extra buses to maintain reliability which, of course, means higher bus fares.

The council was warned. We were lucky enough to see the Lewes Road proposals and predicted all the problems we are seeing today.

However, consultants and council engineers were confident no problems would arise and are increasingly reluctant to make changes to their designs.

One particular sore point is the Hartington Road junction. We said there should be space for vehicles to turn right, without bringing northbound traffic to a standstill.

In its infinite wisdom, the council ignored this plea and instead built out the pavement to prevent cars passing right-turning vehicles, causing long traffic jams.

Ironically, it is only slow-moving southbound traffic, allowing cars to turn right, that prevents even longer delays to northbound traffic.

This is a key bus corridor with about 30 buses per hour in each direction.

One wonders who gains from the scheme. With stop-start traffic, pollution is likely to be worse for shoppers and cyclists gaining from the new cycle lane.

Meanwhile, cyclists have their own council cycling officer but there is no equivalent powerful officer looking after the interest of bus users. We rarely talk directly to council officers and sometimes rely on The Argus to find out about council proposals.

The council really only has one current scheme which will benefit bus users (North Street/Western Road). Even this has its faults.

While many parts of the scheme are excellent, several sections of current bus priority will be needlessly erased and there are at least two serious potential problems which could jeopardise the hoped for improvements in eastbound reliability.

With Brighton's restricted road system, buses play a vital part in keeping the city moving.

While the bus information system is excellent, what is the council's real commitment to better bus services?

-Peter Elvidge, Secretary of the National Federation of Bus Users, Central Sussex group, Wish Road, Hove