A former mayor of Brighton and Hove is threatening to take her former colleagues to court to stop a new parking plan.

Jenny Barnard-Langston is threatening to force a judicial review if the city council goes ahead with the scheme to halve the number of parking spaces in her road.

She and her husband, former councillor Mark Barnard, say people in Bolsover Road, Hove, were not properly informed about the proposals.

The proposed scheme would see the scrapping of parking on one side of the road.

But residents claim they were never told of the plans - and only heard when people in neighbouring streets told them..

They now want council bosses to re-open the consultation period so they can properly object before a decision is made by councillors on June 7.

Bolsover Road, where Mr Barnard has lived all his life, is right on the edge of the proposed extended Westbourne parking zone.

He said: "Residents are furious that they have never been consulted about proposals to close down one side of their street to parking.

"It was left to people in neighbouring streets to alert those living in Bolsover Road.

"We already pay a high premium to live in this city through our council tax.

"It is unacceptable that residents will be forced to pay additional tax to park in a street where half the spaces are being taken away."

Mrs Barnard-Langston added: "I walk my dog twice a day along the full length and on both sides of Bolsover Road.

"At no time have I seen notices about the changes on lampposts.

"The council says it has received no representations from Bolsover Road residents about the proposals.

"Surely that must indicate that there was a problem with the consultation process.

"Residents are in fear of the council bulldozing the plans through as they have in other areas.

"The councillors who set this scheme lost their seats in the elections on May 3.

"The new Conservative-led council may well take a different view and actually listen to residents.

"We have been told that we are too late but we just cannot accept that residents can be cut out of consultation on a major scheme in this way.

"We feel so strongly about this that we are prepared to go to a judicial review if the council does not agree to re-open consultation."

A council spokeswoman said Bolsover Road residents were leafleted about the proposals in December last year.

She said a newsletter was sent out in February to inform them that they could make their views known in March or April.

She added: "Displaying notices on site is discretionary.

"However, they were put up in the affected roads, including Bolsover Road, on April 4 and 5, and appeared in the local press on April 5.

"The council does not have the resources to check if site notices remain in place during the period for representations.

"Any member of the public had until May 1 to object and the council had a large response to the consultation.

"The comments and objections will be considered by the environment committee on June 7."