Fines for litterbugs should be doubled, according to Brighton and Hove Conservatives as the party pitches its council budget proposals.
The move would mean that the current £75 fine is increased to £150 and the £55 early payment rate rises to £110.
Councillor Joe Miller, the party’s finance lead on Brighton and Hove City Council, said that it would raise a vital extra £40,000 a year towards the cost of cleaning graffiti.
Councillor Miller and his colleagues are also pitching more ideas to fund the restoration of the Madeira Terraces.
He said: “The Conservative group on Brighton and Hove City Council have set out an ambitious, forward-thinking and caring package of amendments to the Labour administration’s budget.
“Our amendments put our city’s prosperity at the forefront. It does so firstly by providing over an additional £8.6 million to fund the regeneration of Madeira Terraces in addition to the £2.5 million already identified.
“The plan is funded from a variety of sources but mainly by following in many other councils footsteps and using the facility enabled by the Conservative government in investing in city assets.
“We plan to borrow up to £40 million to expand our asset portfolio by a prudent around 10 per cent from around £280 million to £320 million.
“This will be funded by borrowing from the government at very low interest rates.
“We will then rent these out to the city’s businesses at a higher commercial rate, with the rental money to pay back the interest and the original asset price bought over a 50-year period.
“But there will then still be a surplus of around £312,000 a year income which we can borrow against over 50 years to provide over £6.8 million capital funds to put into regenerate Madeira Terraces.
“This is what any sensible business will do. For too long we have been holding out for handouts to fund our problem while our city’s heritage literally collapses.
“So, I recently proposed that the Labour administration sell some of our higher-value, lower-yielding assets but they rejected that idea in a rather dramatic and exaggerating way that we were proposing selling all of our assets on which we rely for income.
“This was not the case. Anyhow, we have another plan as they haven’t. So now we are proposing increasing our assets and ring-fencing the funding income for our city’s major deteriorating heritage asset.
“As well as this, we have then identified £100,000 of IT investment reserves to be released for a design, feasibility and business plan on Madeira Terraces so that if there is any revenue-raising opportunities in any designs coming forward, we may be able to borrow more again against this rental income in order to finish off the regeneration of the rest of the Terraces.
“Where Labour have failed here, the local Conservatives are picking up the pieces.
