You've got to admire the ingenuity of Gerald Diamond.

The 65-year-old is planning to travel across the Channel for a hip replacement operation rather than wait for NHS treatment.

Mr Diamond is planning the move after being told he could wait up to 15 months for the operation in England.

We have every sympathy for our health service, with its understaffing problems and overfilled wards, but hopefully Government action will soon address these problems.

In the meantime, perhaps Mr Diamond's plans are the way forward.

The big question is who should pick up the bill for this treatment - the health authority of the patients themselves?

Either way, if a person is in pain and facing a long wait for medical care, it is quite right for them to seek treatment wherever they can get it.

Sad end indeed News that the French Convalescent Home is to be converted into flats marks the end of a long and sad saga.

Together with the people of Brighton, we have campaigned to save the home from closure and prevent the bulldozers knocking down this historic structure.

Together we were able to stop the demolition but we couldn't prevent the elderly residents being moved to other homes.

At least with the latest plan, Glade Dale Homes will have to preserve the building's appearance.

It means the historic structure will remain a feature of the town for years to come and hopefully provide accommodation for local people.

It's just a shame they will not be the people who once called the building home.

Powerful idea Traffic pollution has become an unwelcome characteristic of Brighton and Hove.

But now bright spark Gerry Woolf has come up with a way of dealing with the problem in the shape of electrically-powered cars.

They could prove to be just the thing to charge around town in.