Brighton and Hove has been accused of lacking in vision by the new headmaster of a city college.

Richard Cairns, who stepped in as head of Brighton College three months ago, said the city was trailing far behind places like Edinburgh and Oxford where he worked previously.

He launched the attack at a meeting of the Brighton and Hove City Forum, which brings together bigwigs from the private and public sectors.

He told attendees he had spent five years in Edinburgh, five years in Oxford and three months in Brighton and Hove, and Brighton and Hove was the dirtiest and most tired of the three.

He said: "It strikes me the city's in a state of paralysis about where it wants to go.

That must come back to the council. The council has a responsibility to move Brighton forward.

"The cities I have just come back from have been brave.

"I think the councillors need to be brave. Brighton needs vision and I don't sense after three months that there is very much vision in this city."

Mr Cairn's words came after a dire warning from guest speaker Tony Mernagh, executive director of Brighton and Hove Economic Partnership, that Brighton and Hove was suffering from a "malaise" of wanting no change.

He told the city's movers and shakers that unless they got behind major projects such as the King Alfred and the marina, developers would get fed up and invest elsewhere.

This means planners will have to find other sites to build the 11,000 homes Brighton and Hove must accommodate over the next 20 years, which could mean turning employment land to residential use.

Without commercial investment such as that at City Park, Mr Mernagh said, the first major office development in more than a decade providing 1,600 jobs, Brighton and Hove would become a "dormitory town". Mr Mernagh said: "To put together an application like the marina, you're looking at eight to nine million before you even lift a brick.

King Alfred has gone through four policy and resources committees in the past.

"If rejected, developers will look at that and say, what's the point if something goes through four committees, then gets knocked back?"

Mr Mernagh estimated the population of Brighton and Hove would increase by 33,000 in the next 20 years, of which 27,000 would be of working age from 16 to 64 and most would be single.

He said: "They will need jobs and homes. People who both live and work in the city have a more vested interest in the city."

Mr Mernagh also said people should give a chance to tall towers such as those proposed at the marina and the King Alfred site.

He said: "I don't have sympathy for people who don't want things to be put in their view. When you buy a property, you don't buy the view unless you buy the land in front of it."

The planning application for the marina was knocked back by Brighton and Hove City Council earlier this year.

Andrew Goodall, managing director of Brunswick Developments which owns the marina, said: "In London, people talk about the Gherkin and the London Eye. That is something we haven't embraced. There is this massive fear, an understandable fear, we can't have both."

Douglas McKittrick, Archdeacon of Chichester, said: "There are 54 Anglican buildings in Brighton and Hove, mostly built in the 19th Century.

"We may have to develop to serve the community in different ways. The city is at a crossroads.

"There is a lack of imagination and courage.

"Some of our tall buildings are like Sumo wrestlers.

Some are like ballerinas. The city to move forward needs imagination. Parts of our seafront are appalling and can be beautified.

"It has happened before in Brighton and it needs to happen again."

Simon Burgess, leader of Brighton and Hove City Council, said: "Clearly it is very challenging in this city with the political situation, there being no overall control and where no one party can force things through.

"That said, I think we are in a pretty enviable position with some really major projects on the go with substantial backers working to put money in.

"I think we are on the verge of delivering the sort of change which is really going to put the city on the map for the next 50 years.

"We are providing new homes and leisure facilities for the residents with some really quite stunning architecture and exciting designs.

"We are far from paralysed but I am not going to say it isn't really challenging."

Friday, March 17, 2006