General Election 2024 in Crawley: Meet the Labour candidate

Here’s what the Labour candidate had to say.

Peter Lamb has one question for people as they consider which box to cross at the polling station.

The dad-of-one said: “After 14 years, the question I usually pose people is ‘can you think of a single thing in terms of your family’s own situation, the country at large or the town which is better off than it was 14 years ago?’

“I’ve yet to hear someone give me an answer to that.”

Mr Lamb has been part of Crawley’s political landscape since 2018 and this is his second attempt to become the town’s MP.

As a serving borough councillor, he’s familiar with the problems facing the town but said councils such as Crawley’s were ‘constantly running up against brick walls’ when trying to improve services.

He speaks about the cost of housing, getting support for children at school, trying to get a GP or dentist appointment and even the council’s efforts to build a renewable energy facility which fell through because the National Grid couldn’t supply power.

He added: “All of these things are constantly holding us back from being the kind of place which we really could be.

“What I’m looking to do is to get into Westminster because I know where all the problems are and I know where all the restrictions are on us being able to move forward.

“And I think it takes some one like that who understands those constraints to actually clear them out of the way and make headway.

“If we don’t do that, we’re going to wake up to the fact that we’ve got 1.5% of the town currently living in hostels and no long-term strategy as a country for how we’re going to deal with that.”

While he recognises the need for housing and council housing, Mr Lamb’s views on the West of Ifield proposals are clear.

He said: “What is being proposed offers no benefit whatsoever to the town.”

Like so many others, his concerns centre on the pressure Crawley’s infrastructure will face from a development built on the boundary with the Horsham district, with the only positive being 100 units of social housing.