Hate to burst your bubble but that really isn't true. There are tens of thousands of hotel / B&B rooms in Brighton that provide major employment. I've worked for some of the largest hotels in the city and their customers spend serious money in the city and help pay for many jobs.
More than a bit of an assumption there ! I go into town extremely rarely. If the council want to make it difficult and expensive to do so then I'm sure more people will follow me in only buying online or via out of town retail parks. It's not my fault if city centre businesses go under due to...
No it's not. It's for a number of reasons :
1. A car provides the flexibility to go somewhere when you want and to equally leave when you want.
2. Public transport is extremely expensive.
3. Why the hell should a council determine how you travel ?
London Road car park is 8 quid of 9 hours ( I think ) - OK you have a short walk to the centre but much better value and the NCP rip off ( how else do you think the CEO maintains his boat ? ).
As Happy Pig touched on, it's more about the unrelenting war the council seem to have declared on car users.
While the bus services generally are good within the city the cost is ridiculously high. Also, because of the way B&H run their services it can take an age to get to where you're going...