Everyone knows the stark difference there has been for centuries between the West End and the East End of London.

But the same division exists in many other towns and cities throughout the UK.

It started through the prevailing south westerly wind which carried noxious smells, and then the pollution from scores of smoking chimneys to the east.

Those who could settled in areas such as The Meads in Eastbourne and St Leonards in Hastings to get away from the pong.

In Brighton the division was stark and even today you can notice the difference as you step across the dividing line of Old Steine, Grand Parade and Lewes Road. But it's high time these ancient distinctions were abolished now that there are no longer any polluting chimneys.

A big effort is being made through the New Deal for Communities programme of £47 million spread over ten years to improve conditions on estates such as Whitehawk and Moulsecoomb.

Efforts have been made before which have failed because they have not fully involved the people. This time it looks as if it will be different.

Great strides have been made at Falmer High School to turn it round under the inspirational leadership of Antony Edkins while progress is also being made at East Brighton College of Media Arts where the problems have been even greater.

At long last, there are signs of improvement in St James's Street which has been the saddest shopping street in Brighton and Hove for several decades.

Cafes are coming in which are making the street lighter and brighter. The Methodist Church is being rebuilt to provide a focal point for the community and even Safeway supermarket has been renovated. Let's hope the same can soon be done in Lewes Road.

Further east, another focal point has been provided in the Crypt community centre at St George's Church, built despite determined and irrational opposition, while the shopkeepers have managed to create a real village feel in St George's Road and the nearby streets.

The best part of £100 million is being spent at the Royal Sussex County Hospital on making it a medical centre fit for the 21st rather than the 19th century.

The area with the greatest scope for improvement remains Madeira Drive on the seafront. Renovation of the Lower Esplanade between the two piers has been a huge success but it stops abruptly at the Aquarium. There, the much vaunted development of high class restaurants looks destined to become a Burger King, a club and an amusement arcade.

Work at the Marina is now nearing completion and while it may not be the city in the sea originally envisaged by architect David Hodges, it has not become the white elephant many feared either. The new buildings should add many more attractions and also improve the circulation so that pedestrians in particular do not feel they have reached a marine dead end.

Black Rock swimming pool was once one of the glories of Brighton, yet it has been derelict for almost 25 years. The two-acre site is now being marketed but progress is painfully slow. What the city council, both as landlord and planning authority, must ensure is that it provides something for the people such as a skate park while enhancing neighbouring areas including the Kemp Town slopes.

Action is also badly needed at Peter Pan's Playground. It has been an eyesore ever since it was built but whereas ten years ago it throbbed with life, it now looks sad and partly neglected. If the current owner cannot deliver the goods, the council has to ensure that something more exciting and in keeping with the area takes its place.

Most of all, the area needs a fine form of transport to take people from the pier to the Marina. Volk's Railway, rather run down, runs between nowhere and nowhere. It would be a tribute to Magnus Volk, a great pioneer and innovator, is a new and experimental system such as a monorail were built alongside it to whisk people along the front in a matter of minutes.

Madeira Drive itself badly needs sorting out to improve the setting for shops and restaurants, to add some more continental style beach cafes, to provide proper coach parking and to stop the boy racers from trying to kill themselves and anyone else unlucky enough to be in their way.

There are already great glories in East Brighton. They include Marine Parade, one of the finest seafront boulevards in Europe, Sussex Square, Roedean and Rottingdean. If the rest can reach this standard, and there is no reason why not, east will be at least as good as west.