Political opinion with Cllr Duncan Crow: One Unitary Authority for West Sussex will be far better than having two or more
Crawley Borough Council have announced the findings of their consultation on creating a new Crawley town council. Labour have got the outcome they had been franticly working for behind the scenes, with 72% of the respondents saying they wanted this additional tier of local government. Less than 1% of Crawley’s population took part, but the percentage of local Labour Party members will have been a hugely higher percentage.
To me and many others, the information provided felt biased in order to get the outcome being sought by the exercise. We Conservatives continue to call for a local referendum in Crawley, to take place at the same time as next year’s scheduled local elections, which would minimise the cost of running it. However, Labour Councillors have already voted down our Conservative proposal for this, which tells you everything you need to know about how much Crawley’s Labour Councillors trust Crawley people. The town council is going to happen, with elections to it likely to be in May 2027 which is going to mean higher council tax overall, one way or another.
This has all been a distraction from the government consultation that runs until 11 January, on future arrangements for the unitary council that will serve Crawley, that will provide almost all the services once Crawley Borough Council and West Sussex County Council are dissolved in 2028.
The government consultation can be found online with a search of “Shaping West Sussex” taking you there. Three options are being consulted upon, but only one will limit future council tax hikes, limit cuts to services, and not risk causing serious damage to services by not splitting them up.
Expert analysis has shown that one single unitary authority for all of West Sussex is likely to be around £30 million a year less expensive to run when compared with having two authorities. I advocate support for one unitary authority and encourage residents to support this option in the online consultation. Ironically, now Labour are getting their town council, their arguments about the size and how local the unitary council is, become even less credible.