I am usually a little too busy running Crawley Borough Council to be writing about football, but this week will be a notable exception as I wish to offer my personal congratulations to Crawley Town Football Club, as they reach the League Two play-off final at Wembley.
This is the culmination of a year of success for the club, which sees them in a very strong position for promotion. I feel sure I speak for everyone at Crawley Borough Council when I say we are thrilled and will all be hoping for the club’s further success and promotion! I also seem to know half of the town who are planning to go to watch the game when it was played, so we wish the team all the luck in the world.
Crawley Borough Council has always maintained a good relationship with the club, through its history, we have been a supportive friend and historically the council has been a strong supporter of local football – and indeed all sports. Since the club was at Town Mead, we have supported its growth and development – probably most visibly through the move and construction of the Broadfield Stadium, a fine base for the club, built and owned by the council, and rented to the Reds at a price that I believe would be the envy of most, if not all, of the other teams in their leagues.
I don’t want to leave out our support as a Labour council for other clubs and sport and leisure in general, however. Three Bridges Football Club has also received support from Crawley Borough Council recently, using Civil Infrastructure Levy money, which has helped them to achieve a significant grant from the Football Foundation towards a brand new 3G pitch which will further help Three Bridges FC in their great community work, including their support for women’s football locally. This is a fantastic good news story, and this week the club received planning permission to proceed with the works, so I wish that happens as smoothly as these major projects ever can.
We are very committed as a council to promoting health and wellbeing in the council, K2 is a hugely successful regional leisure centre offering first class facilities for all kinds of sports and our facilities at the Bewbush Centre offer a wide range of gym equipment. Recently we recognised a large number of those who have attained sporting excellence from training in Crawley, an extensive and honourable list!
Added to our improved tennis courts and many health and wellbeing activities available through Crawley Wellbeing, our record as a Borough is excellent. Good luck to Crawley Town FC this week, let’s hope for even more success!
Cllr Michael Jones
Leader, Crawley Borough Council