Plenty of money has been poured over the years into the estates of Whitehawk and Moulsecoomb in East Brighton.

The aim has been to improve the homes on the estates so that many of the problems would go away. But it did not really work.

Now the New Deal for Communities is injecting £47 million into a large area of East Brighton over the next decade and care is being made to ensure mistakes of the past are not repeated.

The first and most important change is making sure that local people are involved in the project and that many of their good ideas are implemented.

After all, the people who live on the estates know best the difficulties needing tackling.

The second change is in the way authorities work. They are being much more flexible and they are working together.

The third change is involving the private sector. If new shops and businesses can be established on the estates, they could be transformed.

It is vital that this works. Whitehawk, Moulsecoomb and the other smaller estates forming the New Deal area have been under a cloud for too long.

The people there need help, but this time it is mainly down to them and not faceless officialdom to make things better.

Flower power Parts of Brighton and Hove are a riot of colour this summer with hanging baskets in every shop and restaurant.

But in some sections of town, notably North Street and Western Road, you would hardly know that Brighton and Hove in Bloom was taking place.

Local firms have a pride in their town and so do some of the bigger national concerns such as Boots, Marks and Spencer and Waitrose.

But many of the other high street names could not care less about the community and are only interested in pocketing cash from customers.

Some shoppers might prefer to patronise the bright looking stores, regarding the rest as blooming awful.

Tory's Pride Tory Parliamentary hopeful David Gold will be manning a stall at the Brighton Pride Festival this weekend.

The openly gay prospective candidate for Pavilion says the big crowd-pulling event is an ideal place for campaigning on general political issues.

He says gay people are just as interested in issues such as high fuel prices as anyone else. But he'll also find most gay men and lesbians are opposed to the Tory line on Section 28 and will give that opinion to him straight.