It's only a word and it means nothing in monetary terms but Brighton and Hove have been waiting a long time to become a city.

So there was general joy and excitement when the news came out this week.

The award of city status to a town is a sign that the outside world recognises your true quality and it's a title to be paraded before all and sundry.

But there are always some moaners and groaners who come mainly from areas outside the city centre. You can hear the mumbled grumbles from places such as Patcham, Whitehawk and Coldean that all the attention will be on the bits of Brighton and Hove everyone knows while the far flung suburbs will be forgotten.

The sound has been loudest from parts of Hove which some people are saying is in danger of simply becoming a suburb called West Brighton. They complain that while Hove does all the hard work, Brighton gains all the glory.

It all stems from the inevitable disappointment from the smaller party when two organisations of unequal size merge. The allegation being made against Brighton when the towns came together three years ago was that it took one gulp and Hove was gone.

Ironically, much the same complaint was made with a good deal more justification when Hove swallowed up its much smaller neighbour Portslade back in 1974. A proud town which once had its own police station, fire station and council was left with none of them.

But Portslade did not disappear and many people in this community of 18,000 souls are still pleased to say they live there. Hove, although much bigger, is more amorphous and often more apathetic.

The truth about Hove is much of it is a suburb of Brighton however much the moaners may seek to deny it.

On the whole, if you want entertainment and employment, you have to wander down the road to Brighton.

Hove may be home to sport including cricket and dog racing but precious little else and even its two biggest employers, Seeboard and the Alliance and Leicester, moved their headquarters elsewhere last decade.

If Hove wants to be considered a near equal of Brighton, it has to play a bigger role in the new city.

It mustn't flinch when new developments come along for, say, Shoreham Harbour and the King Alfred leisure centre. It must accept that being active can bring its own problems.

In the past, Hove was so quiet it was called the cemetery with lights. Even now, there are large areas where community spirit is distinctly lacking, especially in comparison with most of Brighton and Portslade.

Yet it has much to offer the new city. It has fine parks, magnificent Regency terraces and a seafront unrivalled in splendour in the whole of the country.

Its shopping centre could be immensely attractive with just a few additions. Access by road and rail is often easier to it than in Brighton.

Already the buzz of Brighton has started creeping along the coast through the Brunswick area to Church Road.

At Sackville Road it appears to stop but exciting things are happening in Hangleton and Knoll which are being revitalised.

Council leader Lynette Gwyn-Jones says the towns would not have gained city status without Hove.

Certainly Brighton on its own failed in a separate bid eight years ago, so she may be right.

But to play its full part in revitalising this part of the coast, Hove has to look almost as lively as its big and brassy sister.