The big news this week is that Crawley Borough Council made a joint submission to Government with Reigate & Banstead Borough Council on what potential devolution and local government reorganisation could look like in our area.

A lot of this submission was about exercising some common sense.  If we were drawing a line to make a council with a larger population size, and starting with a blank sheet of paper, would we think going in with towns in and around Gatwick such as Horley and Redhill made more sense than reaching out to the Sussex market towns of Horsham, Billingshurst and East Grinstead?  This is not the outrageous question that some might claim it is!

Our whole current system of local government is based around a model first created over 135 years ago.  The Victorians drew a line and decided it made most sense for us to be in with Chichester.  That may well have made sense in that era, when Crawley was merely a village, rather than the largest town in West Sussex, Gatwick was a racecourse and the aeroplane wasn’t to be invented for another two decades. But we live in a world transformed in that time.

What made sense then based on ceremonial counties doesn’t necessarily make sense now.

I cannot make this clearer.  Any claims we are going into London, or becoming a London Borough are completely untrue.  The new council created would also have nothing to do with ULEZ.  Everyone’s postal and geographical address will remain in Sussex.

There is a strong economic and strategic planning argument as to why Crawley and Reigate & Banstead should be in the same unitary authority, and therefore in the same Mayoral Strategic Authority.  Having two directly elected mayors with potentially conflicting strategies dividing this economic functioning area would be detrimental to the future economic prospects of this town and would impact on growth.

There are also some wider public service arguments for considering this option, in particular health given where our acute services are based.

As we move forward, we are very much committed to further public engagement and indeed some has already been done.  We anticipate undertaking more engagement later in the year, ahead of any decision.

It’s also important to state that the submission made does not state a preference over what might emerge from the collaborative discussions we continue to hold with councils across West Sussex.  The purpose of the submission is to keep the Reigate & Banstead option open until such time as the Council is able to consider all of the options available and take a view as to which is better for the town and its future.

Cllr Michael Jones

Leader, Crawley Borough Council