Looking back at 2025, it has been a major year, a lot done, notable in all of that, but also this was to be the first year of the beginning of the end of Crawley Borough Council. But what a year – and what a list of things that we achieved. People frequently ask me what the council has done for them, so I am going to provide some examples, but by no means an exhaustive list.
This year this Labour council here in Crawley delivered a local Budget that delivered nearly two million pounds of savings with minimal numbers of job losses and maintained frontline services in public safety, neighbourhood services and grant funding.
We achieved all this while undergoing a corporate peer Challenge by the Local Government Association, a full inspection by the Regulator of Social Housing – with a positive rating, above many other councils and devolution and the Local Government reorganisation taking place, including the first phase of a review into whether to have a Town Council.
This autumn saw the withdrawal of water neutrality planning restrictions after over four years which was a great success and through considerable lobbying led by this council as we were part of the only area in the country to have these imposed by Natural England.
For the community, we held a Unity Event, St George’s Day, Armed Forces Day, STEM in the Park and the tenth annual Crawley Community Awards – all events that wouldn’t be there in the form they are, if it wasn’t for CBC. More than 1,000 students attended the Safer Schools event at the Hawth and over 1,600 local children learnt life skills at the 33rd annual Junior Citizen event. Light Up Crawley was a major spectacle of public art provided free by CBC.
K2 and our record on leisure honoured and recognised on its 20th birthday, with £2.5 million invested this year into our leisure centre refurbishment and gym expansion.
We confirmed more council housing will be coming forward at the site of the Ambulance Station, Shackleton Road, Forge Wood and Breezehurst.
Our play equipment improvement programme continued, with play areas in Ifield West and Broadfield renewed.
The 3G pitch investment at Three Bridges Football Club opened – an amazing facility, it was lovely to see our then Deputy Mayor Jilly Hart help open it with the club, with some support from the council towards the overall cost.
Our Parks and green spaces go from strength to strength, with more improvements and enhancements to come! With Crawters Brook, we have a record number of six parks awarded Green Flags this year.
Goffs Park continues to get investment, including a new fence for the miniature railway, a blossom trail, a new sensory garden at Goffs Park celebrating the life and legacy of Janet Roskilly, a quarter of a million pounds investment and restoration in Goffs Park House to bring it back to its former glory and, soon, improved pathways. Recently we unveiled a new avenue of trees planted in Memorial Gardens for COVID-19 memorial and the Boy with Sturgeon statue is back out in public view at the Walled Garden pond.
We continued to demonstrate Crawley is prosperous and growing in economic activity – the opening of the new Innovation Centre in Manor Royal, to encourage the new green industries of the future, will be important for years to come. We opened the Learning Lab in Bewbush to ensure skills, training and support are on hand to residents, guaranteeing Employ Crawley’s future in supporting residents for the foreseeable future.
We succeeded in moving the market to a new improved location where everyone is happy, market traders, customers, with new stalls regularly taking pitches. The Western Boulevard improvement works and junction upgrades are all finished. The Station Gateway planning application is approved with work set to begin in the early new year, which will be a major piece of town centre regeneration to enhance the appearance of a major gateway into town.
Other notable successes worth mentioning include the K2 Solar carport being installed, over 250 seniors attending the successful Winter Warm Up event, our planning department being awarded the South East Planning Authority of the Year, Tilgate Nature Centre upgraded to become a fully accredited and licenced zoo with a brand new website launched, CBC’s Planning Team named South-East Planning Authority of the year by the Royal Town Planning Institute, the restored borough crest moved to new Town Hall and we began discussions in readiness for £20 million investment in Bewbush and the immediate area surrounding it in the Government’s Pride in Place programme.
I think all this underlines that Crawley is somewhere that is going places. There is activity and there is a scale of vision. Last month we appointed the team who will help us deliver the vision for a rebuilt and regenerated Town Centre East. So, let’s go forward in the new year confident that what we are doing is absolutely making a difference and we will keep working for the good of the Borough.
Cllr Michael Jones
Leader, Crawley Borough Council