Crawley Borough Council Leader: A once in a generation opportunity to shape Crawley's future

There's a lot of nonsense being written about what this means, mainly from the local Crawley Tories who feel their vested political interests within West Sussex are being threatened. But there is also a fair amount inaccurately being suggested by people who don’t fully understand what the process is about.

Anything you read that says we are going into London, or becoming a London Borough is completely untrue. The new council created would also have nothing to do with ULEZ. Your postal and geographical address will remain in Sussex. Why wouldn't it? We’re talking about provision of your local public services, not an Atlas.

All we are doing is attempting to answer the question, that if you have to draw the lines for a new council area (and the instruction from central Government is that it has to be significantly larger than how we are now arranged in Crawley Borough), how would you draw that new boundary in a way that protects the existing identity of the area you represent (which we surely all want) but also ensures that we go in with communities that share more in common with us and will maximise the economic success and the most efficient planning and infrastructure that makes for successful, healthy communities.

It makes no sense that on the brink of Gatwick expansion, we put a hard boundary across what is one of the biggest economic areas in the region. It also makes no sense for the public services, transport and infrastructure we need. We need to have some grown up discussions about that, and that is what we are doing. There is a once in a generation, if not once in a lifetime, opportunity to get this right.

Our geography sits on the edge of the county, as obviously does Reigate & Banstead Borough's geography. The population size of both is not so large that a new unitary authority couldn't sit on either side of the devolution arrangements, so it isn't even necessarily going to be the case that we would move out of the Sussex combined Mayoral authority when the final decision is taken by Government.

The report and submission that I hope the council will agree to submit this week isn’t about “moving Crawley” anywhere, it is about keeping all our options available for the residents of Crawley and ensuring that when the time comes we take the one that is in their best interests, that best keeps their identity and choices intact. And there’s a lot to unpack with that. If people want to criticise me for that, let them do so, because I believe protecting your interests as a local resident is worth it – and what we were fundamentally elected to do. And I will do my duty on this.