Hopes were high late last year when the Brighton and Hove City Mutual project was launched in the city.

The idea of getting people to invest in developments providing jobs was backed by all the right organisations including the council, the Regeneration Partnership, the South East England Development Agency and New Deal for the Communities.

But now the project has been put on hold because of two legal snags discovered by the council.

One is that it cannot be seen to support a financial project and the other is it cannot sell sites, even difficult ones, for less than their commercial value.

It's a pity the council did not find out about the problems earlier, since this would have saved a lot of people a lot of time. But this setback should still not mean the end of the mutual.

If the council took another legal opinion, it might find out that the snags were not insurmountable.

It's also possible the scheme could be revitalised using another vehicle such as the Regional Development Agency.

There's still mileage in the idea of establishing a non-profit mutual fund to attract funds from local people to pay for the sort of jobs creation they want.

Looking around the city, there are still several derelict sites that could be transformed into attractive business parks.

The mutual would provide employment in an area that needs it and would give investors a competitive return. It may be down but it certainly should not be out.