Tories prepare for challenges

With a £50 million black hole for housing improvements, a school admissions row which refuses to go away, the controversial redevelopment of the King Alfred site looming and questions unresolved over parking and transport, Brian Oxley and his Tory administration have a wasps' nest of stinging issues to tackle.

In their first move of the term, the Conservatives have put forward plans for three new committees, structural changes they hope will push major developments forward, find savings in a stretched budget and promote the city's greatest commodity, arts and culture.

While shuffling the pack may provide an administrative success, they will be judged on their actions over issues like the £290 million redevelopment of the King Alfred site.

The Tories were elected with a mandate to fight the King Alfred scheme but Coun Oxley has refused to detail his plans for the Frank Gehry proposal until officers have come up with options.

He said: "I have asked officers for options and I hope to have a meeting with officers shortly."

The election campaign saw much mud thrown at the Tories for being antidevelopment and progress but Coun Oxley dismisses this. He said: "One of the reasons we have set up the major projects sub-committee is so we can make progress with the major redevelopments and keep the work moving forward.

"The new developments are absolutely key to providing jobs and making improvements in the city.

"We have always said we have no argument against the redevelopment of the King Alfred sports centre. It is really a very narrow view of our position to assume that because we are against one development we are against them all.

"We hear from residents and consider the comments seriously so they have confidence in the consultation process."

The Brighton Centre is one of the Tories' top priorities over the next four years.

Coun Oxley said: "It has been on the cards for some years and we need to be making progress with it.

"I hope we can do that very quickly as it is a cornerstone of the city of Brighton and Hove's economy. The need for the redevelopment has never been in question and I hope we can make significant progress."

Trying to limit the number of cars in the city was one of the key planks of Labour's transport policies and the Tories' tack could be one of the most notable policy differences.

Coun Oxley said: "We will be looking to not go down the no-car route because we need to recognise people need to use cars.

"That is why we are talking about new underground car parks in new developments, which will ensure new homes should not add to the already enormous pressure on parking in some areas.

"The reality is that people just park down the road if they do not have car parking provided and we have to recognise this issue.

"We know people sometimes need to use their cars as well as using public transport and we want to redress the balance in the council's transport policy."

Plans for a new rapid transport scheme, which would see tube-like buses with dedicated lanes on the city streets, are being progressed by the council.

Coun Oxley said he wanted to look at the proposal again and is keen to revisit a monorail project which had been sidelined by Labour.

He said: "We need to look at the transport policy as a whole and the rapid transit scheme is part of that and I think we need to reconsider a monorail as part of this. I have seen monorails working very well in other countries and they are very popular.

"For the rapid transit bus scheme we will also need to look at what the impact will be on other road users."

Park-and-ride was another of the thorny issues which was not resolved in the past four years.

Patcham Court Farm was put forward as a possible site for the scheme but it was defeated and Coun Oxley does not believe that finding another spot will be easy.

He said: "Park-and-ride will play some part in that review but we have looked at sites across Brighton and Hove and it looks very difficult to find somewhere which works politically and practically at the present time.

"It is not our top priority as we believe there are other improvements, like reducing congestion when it can be done safely, which need to be implemented first."

Changes to secondary school catchment areas has stirred up more passion than almost any other issue in the city and the Tories have pledged to review the scheme.

They have yet to say what they hope to do in practical terms.

Coun Oxley said: "It is clearly a big issue and we have pledged to review the school admissions.

"We are going to be looking at how to achieve a balance between keeping the new benefits that people have got at the moment and working to mitigate some of the negative effects in other parts of the city. We will wait until the adjudicator produces his report and look at the issue in the autumn."

Plans to transfer council homes to a housing association were dumped earlier this year and, because of the vote against the proposal, Coun Oxley will now have to find up to £50 million to bring thousands of homes up to a decent standard.

He said: "We said we would respect the vote of the tenants and we will do so.

"It will be one of the toughest issues we have to deal with in the next four years."

With an election pledge to keep council tax increases under the rate of inflation, and difficult financial times ahead predicted, the Tories face a tough time balancing the books.

Labour is already predicting painful cuts but Coun Oxley says careful financial management savings do not have to mean cuts.

Coun Oxley said: "We are discussing finance in public with the new sub-committee.

There will be no secrets and we will be matching policy to resources.

"The other parties have been saying we are going to make cuts since I have been in politics. It seems to be their stock in trade.

"We will concentrate on the council's core services and will protect council services for the vulnerable."

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