The Tories are having a torrid time after their election defeat but Brian Oxley, their new leader on Brighton and Hove Council, insists the party is in good shape.

He is preparing his 25 colleagues for a two-year battle which he believes will end with a Conservative win in the elections in 2003.

Councillor Oxley, 41, replaces Geoffrey Theobald, who has been a leading Tory in Brighton for more than 30 years. He is a very different politician.

While Coun Theobald came from a deeply political family - both he and his father were mayors of Brighton - Coun Oxley is a comparative newcomer.

He moved to Brighton and Hove from Derby in 1989 and stayed.

Coun Oxley became a Conservative as a teenager in 1974. He felt it was wrong that union power should bring down Ted Heath's Tory Government in the first of two general elections that year.

He became an enthusiastic follower of Margaret Thatcher when she became party leader and now thinks Michael Portillo is the best of the current crop of contenders for the leadership.

Like Mr Portillo, he believes in "compassionate Conservatism". Coun Oxley explains it by wanting to help beggars in Brighton and Hove at the same time as moving them off the streets.

His life is steeped in politics. He works at Westminster for Arundel and South Downs MP Howard Flight.

During the late afternoons, evenings and at weekends he spends between 50 and 60 hours a week on council activities.

After being elected to the old Hove Council for Westbourne ward in 1995, he joined Brighton and Hove Council when it was formed and quickly became joint deputy leader.

His diligent ward work sometimes brings forth wry comments from colleagues, who note that he leaves no paving stone unturned in Westbourne.

Coun Oxley constantly raises issues such as graffiti on junction boxes, traffic problems, the state of trees and cracked pavements.

He makes no apologies for doing so, saying: "Residents want to see the basics done properly."

But it pays off. Westbourne is the only seafront ward in Brighton and Hove to have remained solidly Tory until you get to prosperous Rottingdean.

He stood for Parliament in 1987 in an unwinnable Sheffield seat but reduced the Labour majority and came close to being selected to fight Hove in 1997.

In the little spare time available, Coun Oxley listens to music, keeps fit and goes for long walks by the sea.

Determined and confident about victory in the next local elections, he said: "I hope to lead an inclusive administration that will govern in the interests of everyone, no matter what walk of life."

On the issue for a directly-elected mayor, Coun Oxley will campaign for a No vote in the October referendum.

He hopes the council will revert to what he considers a more democratic system of large-scale committees rather than the present Cabinet model.

He is scathing about the current Labour administration, saying it has had three leaders in three years and faces severe financial pressures, especially in social care.

He says while council tax soars every year, services decline and the streets are full of rubbish following the failure of the Sita contract.

As much as he loves the city, he feels the prevailing image is of a split bin bag spilling its unsavoury contents.

Coun Oxley said: "Labour said it wanted to build a socialist city by the sea but it has made it scruffy. I want us to build a shining city by the sea.

"Labour has had a long time in Brighton and Hove but it is still in trouble. It keeps changing its leaders but the problems remain."

Amid the gloom of election defeats, he saw rays of light in Tory local government victories, not least the wresting of control from a Lib Dem/Labour coalition on East Sussex County Council.

Ineffably polite and serious in demeanour, Brian Oxley could be underestimated by those who like their politicians glitzy and glamorous.

He has a quiet determination that has brought him to the top of the Tory tree while still politically young. When he says the Conservatives are in a position to win, he means it.