When city council chief executive David Panter lined up his top team, he mostly kept the same people in their posts.

But he appointed one new director, 39-year-old Jenny Rowlands, to be in charge of the environment, a remit which includes waste, travellers, buses and parking.

Almost unknown to the outside world, Ms Rowlands has a good reputation within the city council.

After leaving university in 1985, she worked for the London Housing Unit for four years before leaving to go travelling.

Then she came to the old Brighton Council, to head the policy and publicity section.

She helped the council make good progress in tackling the housing crisis and when the new combined council was formed in 1997, she became senior policy adviser.

Her work included a successful private finance initiative for the new Brighton library, before she became head of policy and communications two years ago.

She developed the council's equalities policy, established the city-wide local strategic partnership and worked closely with council leader Ken Bodfish on environmental issues.

Ms Rowlands freely admits to not being an expert on many of the big issues that worry people. But she has a team of experts on transport, planning and other issues to rely on.

Her job is to make the council more environmentally-friendly in the years ahead and bring all sectors of the community with her.

It does not sound easy and it won't be. Business leaders are vehemently opposed to the new parking regime, which has now been in force for almost six months - although some are coming round to it now.

If the council backs a commercial scheme, there are howls of protest from the environmental lobby, saying it is pandering to big business.

Ms Rowlands said: "We don't want to be seen to be lecturing but we also don't want party-political debates on issues of sustainability."

She also hopes most people will acknowledge when there have been successes in the city, such as the increases in bus patronage.

She is also expecting some progress on tricky issues, such as home-to-school transport, where it is clearly wasteful to be booking taxis for single journeys by children.

Some of the smaller items under her control are just as important. One example is street lighting.

If it is in the wrong place - or not there at all - people can feel unsafe. In future, lighting and safety will be designed with the help of people who will be affected by it.

There are several mighty issues to be resolved next year. They include planning applications for the Albion stadium at Falmer and the land next to Brighton station.

The Brighton and Hove Local Plan, a blueprint for future development and conservation, has to be finalised and decisions will be made on which areas should be included in the new South Downs national park.

There will never be agreement on some of these issues but she hopes the council, in co-operation with other organisations, will make decisions widely seen to be reasonable.

She will also get help from other senior officers, such as her predecessor Alan McCarthy, now deputy chief executive, who will keep an eye on the waste contract.

Culture and regeneration director Sarah Tanburn, who worked with Ms Rowlands in London, will also be closely liaising with her on housing.

Coun Bodfish has put improving the environment high on his list of priorities and a range of initiatives is expected in the New Year.

Ms Rowlands has lived and worked in the city for 11 years.

She used to live in the Queen's Park area of Brighton but has recently moved to Hove with her partner Ian.

Ian and Jenny have two daughters, Lili, nine, and Amaya, six, who attend Queen's Park Primary School.

When they were younger, they used to explain their mother's job as 'going to meetings'.

There could be even more of them once she starts tackling the city's more daunting difficulties.