It is a warm September day. The seafront is thronged with happy people taking their ease and enjoying themselves. But, east of the Palace Pier, Volk's Electric Railway has closed until next Easter.

Despite carrying record numbers of passengers this year, Brighton and Hove City Council officials have decreed the railway must close and the seasonal staff be discharged.

When I was a boy, this railway ran all the year round, using an enclosed car which, unfortunately, did not survive the war.

Councillors display a lack of interest in this fascinating line, which is the oldest operating electric railway in the world, having opened in 1883.

They fail to see its potential as a means of transport.

This autumn, the track is due to be diverted to make way for a volleyball court but officials do not see the benefit of moving the halfway station (at present called Peter Pan's playground) to serve this amenity.

Furthermore, there has been little interest in considering the railway as a means of transporting the patrons of the new Ice Arena planned for Black Rock.

Instead, the council prefers to rely solely on using our already congested roads.

-Peter Bailey, Brighton