We have just started the review that could create a new Town Council for Crawley. A leaflet is being circulated across the Borough because we want people to be aware. Please fill in the online consultation survey. Paper copies are also available from the Town Hall.
The reasons for doing this aren’t easy to express in a few comments on social media, and quite easy to misrepresent as well.
The simple fact remains that Crawley Borough Council will not be here after April 2028. It will be gone. Having councillors on the council that replaces it (over a much wider area) isn’t quite the same thing, just as having councillors on West Sussex County Council doesn’t mean that there is the focus on Crawley that we have here at the Borough.
There is also the added prospect that any new unitary council’s finances get used up on pressures like adult social care and EHCPs meaning there’s even less money available for other services.
This could be the only chance to safeguard those unique facilities that are here because of the way the New Town was built.
And a town like Crawley needs our own identity. If we don’t create this and we lose the Borough, we would be one of the few places in Sussex or Surrey without our own parish council.
A Town Council would be one of the best things to ensure community engagement is maintained, it is well established that residents’ relationships built at town and parish level are stronger than at county or unitary level. There is also no guarantee a unitary council will be based anywhere near Crawley, that’s the future council’s decision.
We won’t create a Town Council that needs large amounts of council tax to operate, the intention is it will have its own income base independent from taxation.
I’ve read figures plucked out of the air from the opposition to try scaring people off the idea, which ring rather hollow. They know because parishes generally charge such a shrinkingly tiny part of the overall council tax bill, the Conservative Government never even bothered to cap them.
Let’s give our Town a future with a council dedicated to Crawley alone. Let’s not lose our Mayor. Let’s not risk losing the things that make our civic life the achievement that it has been for so long!
Cllr Michael Jones
Leader, Crawley Borough Council
Please share your views online at: https://crawley.gov.uk/council-information/how-council-works/consultation/2025/town-council-crawley