In just 22 days' time, the streets of the North Laine area of Brighton will erupt in a frenzy of celebration.

Two thousand costumed children from more than 50 schools and community groups will transform this always lively area into a huge carnival of fun.

The annual Brighton Festival, filled with a wonderful variety of entertainment, will have begun.

And this is a rather special year.

The festival has a new chief executive, the immensely experienced Nick Dodds who has moved over from the Edinburgh Festival.

It is also, need I remind you, the first year as a city festival.

We should be so proud of it. We should be hugely celebratory. We should be shouting our delight from the rooftops and the street corners.

The city should be awash with banners, posters, flowers, lights and lots and lots of noise.

It is a festival for everyone - not just a privileged few who can afford to fork out for tickets to a clutch of the most expensive events.

So will our city be transformed for this three week celebration? Sadly, not a chance - if the experience of previous years is anything to go by.

I wrote of the apathy and the miserly attitudes of both the council and the business community towards decorating the streets and public places this time last year.

As usual though, the festival went ahead in a town that seemed afraid to speak its name.

A secret event that casual passers-by might never have noticed.

However, I have a plan. I want the council to rush through emergency appointments for two people who have already shown they have the flair, the energy, the ability and the entrepreneurial pzazz to transform the streets into a place fit to host England's largest festival.

The pair I have in mind? The successful businessman Robbie Raggio who controversially won enormous support for the spectacular Christmas lighting display on his home in Woodland Drive, and Sue Addis who so brilliantly creates a Christmas wonderland in the Lanes around her restaurant Donatellos.

Put them together and I guarantee spectacular results And who will pay for it all? The council should be ashamed of its less than modest contribution to the festival and could easily find extra money. It is a matter of will, of how it chooses to spend the money we give it via our rates. The council needs to take note of some simple figures.

From an overall income of £6.5million, the Edinburgh Festival generates an estimated £160million for the Edinburgh economy in terms of extra business for hotels, restaurants, shops, taxis and all the rest of it.

The income for the Brighton Festival is a little over £1million. While the benefits for our city have yet to be accurately assessed, they must be substantial.

It is our right, as ratepayers, to expect the council to contribute everything necessary to generate this extra business.