Conservative leader Brian Oxley's new policy on homeless people (The Argus, February 6) reminds me of the one adopted by the right-wing mayor of Paris in the early Nineties. There, the city centre's homeless were rounded up each night and bussed to the city limit, where they were left to fend for themselves.

This kind of "get tough on annoying beggars" policy may go down well with the hang 'em and flog 'em brigade, who would rather this problem was not in their backyard, but it confuses street sleepers with people in insecure accommodation and ignores the laws, measures and policies already in place to deal in a realistic way with genuine housing problems.

Councillor Oxley is again playing to the gallery in an attempt to win votes rather than trying to come up with sensible and innovative ideas to tackle real hardship.

-Warren Morgan, Freshfield Street, Brighton