I had the pleasure of attending a family wedding in Dublin last weekend and I chose to travel to Heathrow by National Express from Pool Valley coach terminal.

I was impressed with the punctuality of the service and the comfortable coach was also a pleasant aside.

The only dampener on an otherwise lovely weekend was the coach terminal in Brighton.

It receives coaches not only from airports but from towns and cities all over the south of England - and what do visitors find when they arrive? Absolutely nothing.

Nowhere to get a cup of tea, no toilet facilities and very little shelter against the elements.

Just a cold, dank, unwelcoming dump. What a great introduction to our so-called city.

Compare that to the facilities at Heathrow, with warm, undercover facilities and excellent communication systems telling you where to join your allotted coach.

Trying to find someone at Pool Valley to get information is like visiting the Marie Celeste. The only building is a rival coach firm's offices which obviously don't open at unsocial hours.

Bearing in mind coaches use the terminal all hours of the day and night, seven days a week, is it too much to ask for some up-to-date facilities instead of the third-world variety we presently endure.

Or maybe the council is too busy raking in thousands in parking fines to want to bother.

Never mind, visitors and those waiting for their friends and relatives will just have to shiver and get wet, as I did last weekend while waiting for onward transport home. Brighton a city? More like a shanty town, if Pool Valley is anything to go by.

-David Gale, Lewes