The new Labour council has begun to implement its vision for the city after its election win earlier this month.

Labour took majority control of Brighton and Hove City Council for the first time in 20 years, gaining seats from the Conservatives and the Green Party.

Newly elected councillors will meet for the first time since the election tomorrow and will approve a new range of committees to begin putting Labour’s manifesto pledges into place.

Council leader Bella Sankey said: “We have selected a team with an abundance of experience and expertise to ensure the council begins to make immediate significant progress in key areas.

“We want to use the wealth of talent, skills and knowledge that we have in the Labour group to show residents of our city that we are serious about putting in place the plans we outlined in our manifesto.”

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Cllr Sankey visited Hollingdean depot along with Councillors Tim Rowkins and Theresa Fowler, who will head up the council’s new city environment, South Downs and the sea committee.

The trio spoke to Cityclean staff about a range of subjects including bin collections, re-opening public toilets and graffiti.

Speaking about his new role, Cllr Tim Rowkins said: “The scale and variety of the problems we face as a city is huge and a big part of our campaign was around the look and feel of the city, the sense that it is looking tired, messy and in decline.

“We have a strong mandate to deliver on that and we will be working very closely with everybody involved.

“The climate and biodiversity emergency sits at the apex of many of the other problems we face - if we don’t get on top of it, all other problems will become irrelevant sooner or later.

“With the South Downs in the north and the sea to the south comes a great deal of responsibility to protect and restore their health and to begin to allow plant and animal life to bounce back from the ravages to which they have been subjected.”

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Jilly Stevens is one of Labour’s two new councillors in Brunswick and Adelaide after voters ousted Green council leader Phelim Mac Cafferty and his deputy leader Hannah Allbrooke.

Cllr Stevens will serve as the lead councillor on customer support and communications on the city council.

She said: “In our manifesto, we promised to keep in touch with residents and to make them our priority so we will be working closely with everyone at the council who deals with questions and enquiries from the public.

“We will aim to help people as fast and as efficiently as possible and to make it easy for residents to reach the right person.

“We will encourage more feedback and take note of people’s views so that we can keep improving our customer service.”

Councillors will meet from 4.30pm tomorrow for annual council, where they will officially appoint the new council leader and elect the next mayor of Brighton and Hove for the next year.