Park-and-ride is being put back in the frame as transport chiefs try to solve chronic traffic problems.

The idea was shelved two years ago when Brighton and Hove City Council ruled out the possibility of a park-and-ride site north of the bypass.

But at a meeting of the City Forum at Brighton College, Roger French, managing director of Brighton and Hove Buses, stressed the need for such a scheme.

During a debate on transport, he said two car parks were needed north of the bypass at Braypool and Waterhall on either side of the A23.

Mr French said each one would need to take 3,000 people. One would be for short-term daily visitors and the other for city break tourists.

He said: "Transit vehicles would whisk car occupants effortlessly into the commercial city centre as well as main hotels and the seafront every few minutes."

Others agreed park-and-ride should be an option for the future.

Council chief executive David Panter said: "I don't see any solution that doesn't involve some form of park-and-ride."

The new, hung, council needed to have a debate on solving the traffic problem.

Mr Panter added: "If we don't get it right, we can say goodbye to new schemes such as the redevelopment of the Brighton Centre."

But Patcham Tory councillor Geoffrey Theobald said: "These sites would be too far back and they would fail."

Selma Montford, secretary of the Brighton Society, said park- and-ride schemes would not work unless the council reduced the capacity for car parking in the city centre.

Deputy chief executive Alan McCarthy said the council had to ensure people attracted to the city by new developments were still able to move around. He also warned congestion levels would not go away.

Ian Kavanagh, from National Car Parks, who directs parking enforcement in the city, said the police used to issue 40,000 tickets each year. NCP now issue 160,000, and the number was likely to rise as more controlled parking zones were introduced.

Councillor Ken Bodfish, Labour group leader, told forum members: "You can talk all you like about transport. But last week you voted for a council which will not be able to take decisions for four years."