Now we know why Brighton and Hove City Council wastes money.

Councillor Jackie Lythell's financial calculations reveal a fragile understanding of numbers: 870 times £150,000 is not "about £65 million".

It is £130.5 million. And 1,500 times £150,000 is not, as she says, "about £120 million", it is £225 million.

Perhaps such mathematics explains how the cost of refurbishing the Dome-Corn Exchange complex could escalate from a projected £23 million to an actual figure of at least £52.5 million.

Coun Lythell is fond of quoting the £500,000 attracted by the Capital of Culture bid from business sponsorship and grants.

Perhaps she will now tell us how much of it was public money from grants?

Once again, Coun Lythell, I ask who are the people who decide what such objects as the illuminated traffic cones that, posing as culture, litter our streets and what are the cultural qualifications of these persons? The public has a right to know.

-Alfred O Thompsett, Ridgeside Avenue, Patcham