Do you like to be beside the seafront? Not when it's wretchedly maintained

Following last week's article, I have been asked by many readers to list some of the pathetic examples of mismanagement by current and previous administrations in our city.

As I cannot take up the entire newspaper, I have restricted my examples to the seafront. This is the same seafront, by the way, that is going to encourage 750,000 visitors a year to pay £15 a head to experience the wonders of the i360.

In order that I do not get started on this much fabled seventh wonder of the world, however, let us start by exiting Whitehawk-on-Sea - or "The Marina" as those who love it prefer the wretched place to be known - and work westward from there.

As we pass along the A259 with the elegant Sussex Square and Lewes Crescent on our right, we notice day-in, day-out - and, in fact, year-in, year-out - the unfinished works to the seafront end of the gardens, along with the ritualistic metal barriers we have all come to accept as part of the scenery.

As we bounce along the poorly-maintained A259, if we look to the left we can just see the sad and neglected Madeira Drive below us. Parking just before the Brighton Wheel and Brighton's Big Beach Screen, wander down to the front from there.

Pay a visit to the council-run retro toilets and you can really experience the feeling of living in a third-world country. Yes, there are people who find these sort of standards acceptable. These people are called councillors - and they hang out in a place called the town hall, which we pay to maintain, instead of the toilets.

Wander along from there and, instead of passing under the urine-infested passage below the Brighton Pier, go up the steps to the upper promenade. Have a look at the retro phone boxes either side of the pier; they are like something straight out of a war zone.

Now, cross to the other side of Kings Road, make your way along the filthy pavements in dire need of jet-washing and you will arrive at Black Lion Street. You will know when you are there, as Southern Water have been allowed to undertake - in the height of summer - what are described as "essential sewage repair works".

Try and work out how the signs are directing you around this hazard. I can assure you it is not for the feeble-minded, or for those who may have had a glass or two - as, at first glance, you are being directed out into the middle of the road.

Assuming you have not been run over by this time, you will next arrive at a fairly small hole that has appeared in the eastbound side of the road. Now, I am sure any councillor worth their salt as political wafflers will come up with a multitude of reasons why it all has to be cordoned off for the entire summer.

On the other hand, I thought you could lift a dirty-great metal plate onto the road surface with a crane and allow cars and light commercial vehicles to carry on as normal through the busy tourist season.

Now there's a thought.

These are just a few of the examples that hard-pressed traders are forced to accept, whilst trying desperately to earn a living in the all-too-short British summer of ours.

If we were giving them marks out of 10 and answering truthfully, are this current batch of individuals really the sort of no-hopers we want making decisions on our behalf?