On Friday I met with local traders in The Lanes and North Laine to catch up with news and views in this part of the constituency. I found it really useful and came away with a number of points that I plan to follow up on.

One suggestion put forward was about an additional exit at Brighton station. Many Brighton residents may well remember that there used to be a pedestrian exit leading to Trafalgar Street. Traders in the North Laine would like to see this reopened - which would be beneficial to both traders and local residents.

To explore how viable this might be I have contacted the council to see whether an escalator leading to Trafalgar Street could be included in the Station Gateway Project. I hope to have a meeting later this week to look at the possibilities.

We also discussed the impact of the recession and measures that could be taken to support local businesses - for example, calling on the Government to allow councils to do more to vary business rates in order to help small and medium enterprises.

Some businesses have also contacted me about recent increases in parking charges and I was keen to hear directly from those who may be most affected.

One issue put to me was that the consultation wasn't effective enough which is something I will feed back to the council. However, the key concern was the level of charges: this is something I've raised several times with the council and therefore was pleased to hear later on Friday that the council had responded and reduced some of the tariffs.

There was also disappointment at news of disruptive engineering work on local train lines over the May bank holiday weekend.

This weekend is vitally important: many Brighton traders are already struggling to make ends meet in a difficult economic climate and they need the increase in visitors and shoppers that a bank holiday weekend would usually bring.

I have written to Southern voicing traders' concerns and asking the company that, in future, they factor in the impact that engineering works may have on the local economy.

I came away with lots of other ideas and suggestions and look forward to my next catch up with the local business community in the very near future.

 Caroline with David Sewell at the Pavilion Gardens Cafe