I understand that this is going to be the last column the Crawley Observer’s editor will be allowing party political council pundits like me until after the local elections, so I will take this opportunity to set out why not only has it been an honour and a privilege to be the Leader of Crawley Borough Council but to explain how it has made a huge difference having a Labour council this year.
In terms of managing the council’s finances, the budget we set this February has secured services successfully for another year despite huge temporary accommodation rises and inflationary pressures. The Borough’s council tax has been raised by far the lowest amounts compared to the Police and the county council. The Tories hate us saying it, but it’s true.
The New Town Hall move is complete and people can access services provided in the most up to date ways, Webcasting of council meetings is likely to begin with the first meeting of the municipal year, so you will be able to view all meetings online live or at your convenience.
We have also opened a District Heat Network, and improvements for passengers at Three Bridges Station have also moved a step forward, as has the next stage of the Local Plan, all important to protect Crawley’s future in different ways.
We have continued to bring forward council housing with an impressive number of new homes leased in Forge Wood. Thanks to the work to make much of our council stock more water efficient, this has allowed us to bring forward approaching 200 housing association and council homes at the Longley House and Breezehurst sites in Southgate and Bewbush respectively.
In addition, we have at last been able to move forward the land at Telford Place next to the library, which will also in time deliver new council homes, affordable homes aimed at first time buyers and part ownership homes for older people. All much needed and all close to public transport links.
The Millpond Adventure playground in Bewbush has been saved and on the brink of reopening with extensive new play equipment. We have continued to refresh play equipment across all parts of the Borough, including at Wakehams Green Drive.
We have celebrated some of the amazing community work going on across the Borough. The council is very generous in the grants we award our local community and charitable groups and we have maintained funding for these good causes for another year. We’ve promoted community cohesion through initiatives such as visits to local churches, mosques, temples and gurdwaras and supporting groups at events like DiverseCrawley and the St George’s Day Fair.
Secure tenancies for council tenants are being restored. We have been retrofitting council homes for energy efficiency and to meet climate change targets, this decarbonisation of council housing stock has been a success with hundreds more homes next in the pipeline to add to the impressive number already completed.
We have worked hard to support residents struggling with the cost of living through a variety of ways and will be targeting funding at the most deprived parts of the Borough through the Shared Prosperity Fund.
Cabinet changes will be prioritising Public Protection, to work more to promote Police dialogue with the public and councillors, and creating a fresh and exciting Cultural Strategy for Crawley.
The council successfully spoke out on Center Parcs and persuaded them to abandon plans to destroy significant amounts of ancient woodland at Oldhouse Warren in nearby Worth Forest.
And for the economy, we supported the successful renewal of the Manor Royal Business Improvement District for another 5 years, a body that has transformed the industrial estate in impressive ways since its creation and defended our ethical investment policy from spurious attacks from the Tories.
And I may have missed things out here. That is a compelling list of achievements by this Labour council and a stark contrast to the Tory-run West Sussex County Council whose service delivery can best be seen at the horrendous state of our roads everywhere across Crawley.
If the electorate see fit to give me and Crawley Labour a mandate on polling day to carry on the job you can rest assured that we will be fit for that challenge, with a record of success that I am proud to be associated with.
Cllr Michael Jones
Leader, Crawley Borough Council