The UK will be leaving the EU in March 2019 although I feel that news coverage about Brexit is somewhat overplayed. Many things have already been agreed although the media attention perhaps understandably tends to be on matters yet to be resolved. We tend to see those who are trying to sabotage Brexit, presenting leaving the EU as some sort of apocalyptic event, which is of course nonsense.

None of us like to hear about violent crime in Crawley, especially when weapons are involved. It feels like we are often reading about local reports of stabbings, although the situation is much worse in London which has seen a large number of murders this year. Much of this crime is drug related and tends to occur between criminals rather than innocent members of the public being the victims, although not exclusively so. No one wants it happening or being caught up in it.

Last weekend saw the annual Crawley Race For Life take place in Tilgate Park. Raising money for Cancer Research UK, this event sees hundreds of women take part in either a 5k or 10k race to raise money for the fight against cancer. Last year’s event saw almost 2,000 women raise nearly £100,000. I congratulate everyone who took part at the weekend and I was pleased to sponsor a runner who very sadly had lost a friend to cancer at far too young an age.

I have long taken the view that ideally as a country, we should be able to produce the doctors and nurses that we need. However in reality, we haven’t been able to so for decades and it has been hardworking doctors and nurses from abroad who have ensured that we haven’t had major shortages in our health service.

Our economy continues to perform well under the Conservatives but we should never take a healthy economy for granted. Doing so is possible when we’ve had eight years of economic growth with our economy now being 17% larger than in 2010. My expectation is it will be when we as a country do take a strong economy for granted, that we end up with the next Labour Government. Of course, those of us with long memories know what will then mean for our economy.

I recently highlighted how disappointing it is that under Labour, Crawley Borough Council has the lowest recycling rate out of all seven district and borough council in West Sussex. The seven local councils within the county are the waste collection authorities and West Sussex County Council is the waste disposal authority.

In just under ten months the UK will be leaving the European Union political organisation, into what will probably be a transition period of 22 months before the final withdrawal. Most people believe that referendum results should be respected although the political elite do have a habit of trying not to apply that to matters relating to the EU.

As a Conservative, I am a great believer in fairness and in being inclusive, which obviously I apply to my role as a councillor. Crawley has people from a wide variety of backgrounds and I find that most people are welcoming of each other and respect the differences we have - including political persuasion.

Both locally and nationally, I see first-hand the bogus claims and the hypocrisy that Labour peddles. I wrote here a fortnight ago about the appalling state of Crawley’s grass verges and despite fine weather over the last fortnight, many of our neighbourhoods still look like jungles as I write on Sunday afternoon. Yet Labour leaflets in Crawley both now and in previous years claim improved grass cutting and had the audacity to criticise grass cutting in the town when we Conservatives ran the Council.

On behalf of all the Conservative candidates, I would like to say a big thank you to everyone in Crawley who voted Conservative in last week’s Crawley Borough Council elections. Crawley Conservatives had a very strong set of results with Labour clinging on to control of Crawley Borough Council by the very narrowest of margins.