Crawley Local Elections 2022: 'My first time reporting from an election count and it was a thrilling experience'

I’ve been a community reporter for seven months now and have covered a variety of different stories in that time.

I’ve had the privilege of reporting on charity fundraisers, independent businesses, stage performances at The Hawth Theatre, Crawley Town matches and I’ve even had the chance to meet the Archbishop of Canterbury.

Although these opportunities have given me a great insight into journalism, I’ve always been curious about the world of local democracy reporting.

I’m a local ‘Crawley boy’ and have always had a keen interest in politics. First of all, I was a bit apprehensive about how long the count would take, but my anxieties were proven wrong as the time went by quickly.

I introduced myself to a range of local councillors and candidates, who were friendly and helped me understand the policies of each party more clearly.

It was funny to realise that I’ve met a lot of the people at the election count in different capacities throughout my life.

I could feel the tension building in the room throughout the count as the adjudicators were counting the votes in each ward.

The votes had been counted and the winners were being announced from the stage, in the main sports hall of K2 Leisure Centre. From the counting process, I didn’t realise that votes could be made invalid if not correctly marked on a voting slip.

Cheers could be heard from both Conservative and Labour camps as the winning councillors of each ward were announced.

See more: Labour secures slenderest of majorities in Crawley council election, Crawley’s Labour council leader stepping down ‘on his own terms’

It was touching to see how passionate all the councillors and candidates are about Crawley and its future. It was a great experience.