I take day trips from Newhaven to Dieppe three or four times a year and spend hundreds of pounds there. Here are some of the attractions.

First, absence of intrusive border controls. Most of the time, the French do not even look at your passport. Getting back into the UK is a different matter, of course, partly because Norman Baker MP has kept up pressure for an unpleasant and suspicious welcome at Newhaven. It's bad enough if you are British. Goodness knows what it is like if you are French.

Second, there are 1,500 free and unrestricted parking spaces on Dieppe seafront, from which it is a short walk to pedestrianised shopping areas.

Third, it is not only the cheaper wine and tobacco that pay the cost of the trip. Nowadays, I also bring back bottled water, fresh seasonal fruit and other goods which are cheaper over there.

It would be nice to think Newhaven could be regenerated in the way Dieppe has. And Dieppe has not had it easy. As with Brighton, it is the nearest coastal resort to the capital city but has lost tourist trade as French people now head South or abroad.

But it has invested heavily in a new port, created a pleasant small marina, re-paved its streets with plenty of room for outside cafe areas, still has a street market and in many other ways makes itself attractive and very welcoming to British tourists.

And they still manage to collect refuse daily and wash the streets.

-Trevor Pateman, Brighton