Brighton and Hove has been looking lovely this week in summer sunshine.

It can also bask in the glow of successful projects such as the completion of the Dome, Corn Exchange, Pavilion Theatre and Brighton Museum renovation.

But there is not much to follow and there's a real danger that some if not all the projects for big sites will not get off the ground, often because of sustained and angry opposition.

Shoreham Harbour, the West Pier, the King Alfred, the Brighton Station site. You name it and someone is against it.

There has been a long and often honourable tradition of argument in Brighton and Hove.

Nothing ever goes through on the nod and there are more varieties of opinion than days of the year. If Jesus came back, arrived in Brighton, and proclaimed that God is love, there would immediately be a chorus from somewhere of: "Oh no, he isn't."

Constructive opposition can sometimes lead to improvements. It happened in the case of Jubilee Street where the scheme approved last year was immeasurably better than its predecessors.

It has happened at the station site where the current proposals by the New England Consortium are far superior to any previous versions over the last 30 years although still in need of further refinement.

Some action groups, such as Save Our Seafront which doesn't like the West Pier proposals, have taken the bother to suggest alternative schemes and there is also a people's plan for the King Alfred.

But there are those living near the leisure centre who don't want anything at all built there and some who would rather see the historic pier rot than countenance any enabling development.

This anti brigade simply hate anything new and particularly anything which has the city council's name upon it.

They are a vehement and vituperative bunch. They opposed the marriage of Brighton and Hove and they hated the arrival of city status. To their ranks has been added the high priestess of vitriol, Julie Burchill, who lives in Hove.

The former cocaine Communist has been going for the council for months now and her latest wheeze has been opposing the city's bid to become European Capital of Culture.

She argues it would be better to tackle unemployment than to promote the city as a great place for latte. She ignores the fact it is perfectly possible to do both and there's far more to culture than the froth on coffee.

It's easy for the council to take the blame for anything and everything as it has considerable powers and a remarkable property portfolio. The truth is that the authority, like any large public organisation, is a mixture of good and bad; of brilliant innovation and frustrating, buck-passing bureaucracy.

It's not the all-singing, all-dancing bundle of good as portrayed in City News but it couldn't be as bad as its detractors allege.

Anyone who has a scintilla of pride in Brighton and Hove, who wants it to thrive and prosper, knows that the council will be involved somewhere along the line. But it has little financial clout of its own and even when it owns a site such as the King Alfred, has to rely on private money for much of the development.

There was a time when the National Lottery cash and the Single Regeneration Budget would provide much of the money. But even at the Dome where this was so, the council had to pass much control to the Brighton Festival Society and it needed a public/private partnership to finance the library at Jubilee Street. This is not really appreciated by the anti brigade.

What they should do is put up or shut up. There are four parties on the council and they have all performed Herculean feats to get members elected. Because of this, they are more realistic than many are outside. It is not impossible for independents to get on as has been proved elsewhere in the UK on single issues.

Various groups have said they will stand. Few of them will and I am willing to wager that any who do will get trounced. That's because the public, whom the anti brigade purport to represent, won't wish to have them as councillors.

While it would be wonderful if the waspish Julie Burchill stood for the BILE (But I Loathe Everything) party, I expect her to continue sniping from the sidelines. After all she has a mouth to feed and a play about herself to promote.