Last week we received a letter from the Minister for Local Government informing Crawley Borough Council that our joint proposal with Reigate & Banstead for Local Government Reorganisation will not move forward. This is not necessarily the best news and people need to understand why.

The Government is telling us that we cannot continue with the status quo, there will be no Borough Council following this reorganisation.  If people would prefer the arrangements they currently have, that’s perfectly understandable, but it isn’t an option we are being given.

Therefore the choice was either to consider this, or going in with at least half of the county of West Sussex as a minimum, if not the whole of it, for every part of our local government.  If anyone thinks we have been well served in this borough by the political decisions made by the West Sussex Tories over the past few decades, then I would strongly suggest that they have not being paying close enough attention to what has happened to those services they do control.

It’s also more than a little disappointing that the refusal to consider this is based on a somewhat questionable procedural decision, not based upon the merits of the proposal, which do not seem to have been fully taken into account.

This decision denies this town and this council the choice alongside those emerging from West Sussex and to then take a view on what we believe is in the best interests of the town. We will now need to carefully consider our next steps.

We remain committed to working with our colleagues across West Sussex to develop other options ahead of engaging with residents and stakeholders this summer.  We will also continue to work with Reigate & Banstead and others to find other avenues to restate the economic and public service reform arguments that were at the heart of our proposal.

This council remains committed to providing the very best public services for Crawley and will continue to deliver these for our residents, in the best form that will take, whatever that may be.

Cllr Michael Jones

Leader, Crawley Borough Council