The Conservative Party in Brighton and Hove swept to power a year ago, with a raft of promises ranging from lower council tax rises to new transport policies.

Tory leader Mary Mears and opposition Labour leader Gill Mitchell, gave The Argus their contrasting opinions on the city's first 12 months under Conservative control.

Mary Mears
After 20 years of Labour rule in Brighton and Hove residents voted for change.

We have begun this process by listening and responding to community concerns and sorting out the mess Labour left behind.

The most fundamental achievement of the past year is meeting our commitment to provide residents better value for money and establishing that as a key priority.

We know council tax rises are really hurting people. That's why we've applied stricter controls to the council's finances. We've set the lowest percentage council tax rise in the 11 years since this council was formed - at just 3.9%.

Good use of public money is one of our five top priorities.

Others are ensuring fair and consistent enforcement of laws; growing the economy - such as the Brighton Centre and businesses - and protecting the environment; reducing disadvantage and open and effective city leadership.

These goals are becoming reality in many ways.

Competent and transparent governance is ensuring money is not wasted.

As part of that we introduced a dedicated finance committee to get decisions out in the open.

We plan to save more than £9 million in the next financial year and we've found savings of £150 million over 30 years on repairs, planned maintenance and consultants' fees for council housing while maintaining standards.

On housing, over 150 empty private-sector homes were put back into use for people to rent. We have reduced council house rent arrears by £125,000.

We have also secured the highest level of Government investment in private-sector housing renewal in the region - £9.6 million over three years.

Many new measures are enhancing the appearance and environment of the city.

We've outlawed venues handing out flyers without a licence.

Six new park-keepers have been employed to patrol our parks and gardens, to ensure they are places people feel happy and safe.

The city has benefited from new planting, like the restored South Victoria Gardens near the Royal Pavilion.

After years of going to ruin, work will start this summer restoring the Birdcage Bandstand on Brighton seafront.

By listening and responding, we opened the Jubilee Library on Sundays for the first time and we want to do the same with Hove Library.

We're committed to the future of our city. That's why we're delighted that Rod Aldridge is a sponsor and investing in the proposed Falmer Academy, a project which was previously failing under Labour.

We're taking a tough line on antisocial behaviour. New licensing measures will help address problems caused by over-concentrations of licensed premises in certain areas.

A ground-breaking report we commissioned on reducing inequality will give us the knowledge to tackle the issue properly.

It will mean we'll provide opportunities for individuals as well as spending on neighbourhood areas.

On transport, we're determined to see a less congested city. We want to make it clear we're going to review some of Labour's policies around transport that we inherited and pursue new ones that can make it better for people to continue enjoying our city.

This year has been about getting the fundamental things right and focusing on those down-to-earth things people rightly expect their councils to do. We have seen overall resident satisfaction with council services go up by 13% to 61%, which is the highest it's ever been.

But we're not complacent. This next year we will be concentrating on our core services - getting the basics right - and making sure we are living in a city we can all be justifiably proud of.

Gill Mitchell
The first year of Conservative control of the city council has been marked by a lack of direction and action on key issues, cuts to valued services and broken promises.

After one year the new Conservative administration has failed to get to grips with the major challenges facing the city on transport, housing and city regeneration, and they show no sign of having any plans to address them.

Despite having voted against park-and-ride, the Conservatives have not put forward any major proposals of their own to further reduce traffic volume, instead favouring more city centre car parks and will almost certainly want to do away with bus lanes to enable more traffic to get into the city more quickly.

Current bus services are at risk as valuable parking income is diverted from subsidising transport to pay for flower beds.

The rapid transport scheme is not being prioritised.

Setting up a sub-committee to oversee the various major developments in the city has been a poor substitute for the political leadership that should have ensured these projects were moved forward.

Instead there is little visible sign of progress and decisions on eyesore sites such as Black Rock should have now been taken.

The restoration of the bandstand is still not under way, despite taxpayers stumping up £500,000.

Following last year's decision by the city's council tenants to keep their homes in the ownership of the council, £200 million is needed to bring them up to Decent Homes standards.

One year on, no formal proposals that would have directly produced investment have ever been presented for decision to councillors.

Instead, large maintenance projects totalling £2 million that would have improved tenants' homes were put on hold and a massive £900,000 earmarked for desperately needed council home repairs has not been spent.

Despite many warm words to council tenants and the setting up of several focus groups, no action to directly improve their homes has been taken.

In addition, work to increase recycling and reduce waste has stalled, graffiti is not being removed, and important areas of the seafront, such as Madeira Drive, are being allowed to decline because its yearly investment programme has been cancelled.

Even the rolling programme of improvements to children's playgrounds has been stopped.

Labour's New Road scheme is a resounding success but will we ever see the bold and ambitious plans for more public open space in Valley Gardens become a reality?

The Tories' complacency over getting a better deal for the Brighton Centre directly threatens the city's economy and it is not enough just to leave vital issues like this to council officers.

The Conservative leadership must roll up their collective sleeves and battle for the city.

We need a sense of direction and leadership but after a year of internal wrangling it is still not clear the Conservatives can even agree on what their direction is.

Their automatic response to any of the city's difficulties is to set up sub-groups to look at them but residents want action.

Under the council's new constitution we look forward to using our scrutiny powers to set a better direction in terms of developing policy and will not hesitate to call in and question any ill-thought-through decisions.

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