Bus boss Roger French says making motorists pay to use roads would release millions of pounds to solve transport problems.

The managing director of Brighton and Hove Buses has put the suggestion in a 12-point plan to Brighton and Hove City Council.

Mr French said road pricing should be introduced from 2008 on roads between Newhaven, Shoreham and the Brighton bypass.

Speaking in a personal capacity, he said this would then pay for all the other points in his programme.

They are:

Building two new park and ride car parks, each with 3,000 spaces, at Waterhall and Braypool.

Increasing bus use by 50 per cent in five years by expanding frequencies to a bus every minute along main roads and subsiding new links across the city avoiding the centre aimed at commuters, scholars and leisure travellers.

Funding a new east-west transit link using articulated buses, with guided busways where needed, along the seafront from Brighton Marina to the regenerated area at Shoreham Harbour.

Ensuring all bus stops have real time bus information available and all buses to be low floor easy access.

Eliminating all on street car parking at congestion hot spots such as parts of Lewes Road and Eastern Road and around Brighton Station.

Ensuring all cars and taxis use the short term car park behind Brighton Station for picking up people and radically reducing traffic by restricting access at the bottom of West Street just to the car parks. This would improve east-west movements at the Clock Tower and help pedestrians.

Introducing car-sharing clubs across the city similar to the one being started in Hanover later this year.

Ensuring the top 50 city employers all have effective green transport plans encouraging car sharing with colleagues and making the use of buses and cycling advantageous compared with cars.

Increasing the number of cycle racks throughout the city.

Reviewing schools admissions policies to reduce the catchment areas of schools.

Funding a new traffic director for the city who would ensure traffic keeps moving and that roadworks are properly managed and controlled.

Mr French did not include a rail-based rapid transit scheme in his points and said: "They soak up cash at a greater rate than they consume electric current."

There was also no scope for road expansion in a city hemmed in between the sea and the Downs.

Mr French said Brighton and Hove could continue much as it had in the past with car use kept static and buses slowly growing, but this would lead to gridlock everytime anything went wrong or on any sunny summer's day when already there were queues from Patcham to the NCP car parks.

He said charging motorists should be done to provide the sorts of improvements badly needed in the city and he urged the city council to be bold and implement his proposals, even though the authority has no overall control.

Brighton and Hove City Council chief executive David Panter said that he considered park and ride to be a key factor in helping to solve transport problems.

There were also other serious problems to be tackled including a lack of good east-west routes.

Mr Panter added: "Transport is one of the top issues we have to crack."

The chief executive said there had to be a serious debate about all ideas, including road pricing.