Our goal is to deliver an accessible, clean, and sustainable environment that we can all be proud of.
The look and feel of the city is a key priority. We will continue our focus on improving streets cleanliness and safety, with investment in pavement repairs, new jet washers, graffiti tag removal, the removal of disused parking meters and staying on top of weeds and basal roots. We will improve the city’s waste and recycling collection service as we strive
to drive down missed collections and provide certainty to residents about the action we’re taking. In 2025 we will introduce wider recycling and a phased introduction of a new food waste collection service to the city.
Our environmental services are undergoing a cultural reset to address discrimination, bullying and harassment within the service. Sabotage and criminality will continue to be addressed whenever it arises and the positive behaviours modelled by the vast majority of the workforce will continue to be championed and built upon. Alongside a culture change programme, we are introducing new technology to optimise our collection rounds, improving reporting systems to manage missed collections more effectively, and investing to improve the reliability of our fleet.
We will plan and seek to secure funding to deliver further infrastructure projects such as the A259 scheme, Elder Place and bring forward plans that enable us to seek funding for a new ‘Station to the Sea’ project to improve the appearance outside of Brighton Station, Queens Road and West Street.
We will continue with our efforts to achieve carbon net zero by taking advantage of government initiatives such as Great British Energy, a new publicly owned company, which will deliver clean power by co-investing in leading technologies, the ‘solar rooftop revolution’ strategy to deliver solar power to homes, and the Warm Homes Plan that offers grants and low interest loans to support investment in insulation, solar and low carbon heating. Through a strong partnership and shared vision with Brighton & Hove Buses we will introduce more zero-emission electric buses to the city so that passengers can enjoy quieter, smoother and greener journeys as they travel in a more environmentally friendly way.
Our work to improve energy efficiency will enable us to meet our ambitious carbon reduction goals as well as reducing bills for our tenants and leaseholders. We will continue to invest in energy efficiency measures in council homes and complete our 3-year programme to install solar panels on 800 council homes. We will enforce energy efficiency standards in private rented housing.
We are also working to bring in large scale private investment to help deliver some of the bigger infrastructure projects, as well as working with UK Power Networks to ensure the city has the right grid capacity and flexibility. Having secured £2.8 million of grant funding at the end of 2024, we will be installing an additional 500 public electric vehicle charging points every year for the next 3 years to expand our charging network.
We will seek to build upon our circular economy achievements through adoption of a new Route Map to continue to engage with DEFRA as one of their ‘pathfinders’ leading the way on developing a more circular and regenerative economy.
We will continue our efforts to protect the city’s trees, updating our tree planting plan with a focus on additional planting in areas that lack tree coverage across the City and where tress have been lost to disease and helping the city to combat climate change and biodiversity loss. We will work to improve public awareness and understanding of our tree management approach.
We will also introduce more ways to involve members of the public and organisations in our programmes to protect and improve our green and open spaces.
We will develop and launch a new ten-year strategy setting out a long-term vision for the city’s transport network and the pipeline of transport projects to deliver it. We will continue to find ways to make parking fairer and simpler (including by reintroducing 20 parking meters) and provide more options for residents and visitors to travel sustainably, using the Bus Service improvement Plan funding to increase passenger numbers and implementing and improving active travel schemes including the A259 and A23.
We will continue work to improve the city’s roads, taking a preventative approach to maintenance and resurfacing more roads while also completing increased patch repairs. This will ensure we extend the life of our roads and reduce costs in the future. We will also improve people’s ability to report potholes and request road or pavement repairs, with a new system to plan our work and keep our customers informed.
As a high priority, we are introducing a pilot park and ride project in summer 2025 as proof of concept before looking for a site to introducing a permanent Park & Ride facility on the outskirts of the City to help reduce congestion and vehicle emissions along key routes in the city. We will expand red routes and apply for further powers from government to enable enforcement of moving traffic offences, for example in box junctions and at school street sites.
We will work to reinforce and improve main routes in the city, including Valley Gardens and the seafront arches supporting the A259.