Last week Crawley Borough Council were asked to offer a preference to national Government on the future boundaries for a council covering a much larger area to save money.
There were broadly four alternatives, a single county unitary for West Sussex, two options for unitaries that split West Sussex broadly in half and one from Brighton that would have put us here in Crawley in with Chichester.
It may well be that Crawley residents look at all the alternatives and don’t want any of them. What this will do for place and community identity is as poor as the county council it replaces.
Without hyperbole, I am concerned Crawley will come out of this as one of the worst affected areas in the country, as the Borough’s interests get subsumed to sit below those of the surrounding Sussex market towns.
In West Sussex, the Government’s own criteria for financial balance will require all our major urban areas to be combined with significant amounts of rural hinterland. Consequently, we are faced with Hobson’s choice.
I completely understand the Government’s difficulties and the strains on public finances inflicted by well over a decade of the previous Conservative Government’s policies, that left the country in such a deep hole and starved local councils of finance. But that shouldn’t mean abolishing a Borough Council that has successfully looked after this town for so long.
The Government criteria speaks to creating sensible geographies and meeting local needs.
We put forward an alternative with Reigate and Banstead that wasn’t ideal, but might have made this reorganisation slightly more workable.
We were not successful, and some of the reasons for it not proceeding offered by the Government were disappointing and did not appear to be consistent with the overall mission to stimulate economic growth because we will remain with the position where the major economic engine of this region is split between two separate unitary authorities and two different Mayors.
Notwithstanding these concerns, Crawley Borough Council have expressed a preference for what some councillors believe is “the least worst option” available. This would see us be merged with Mid Sussex and Horsham districts.
The Government will consider the submissions and go out to consultation on the ones they accept in November. Tell them what you think.
Cllr Michael Jones
Leader, Crawley Borough Council