A week is a long time in politics. We have seen a change of control at the Town Hall from Conservative to Labour and the failure of UKIP to win a single council seat. The Conservative Group is naturally disappointed to lose the control of the Borough Council after an unprecedented eight years of sound stewardship.
Over the last four years, we have delivered a Council Tax freeze as well as one of the largest capital programmes in the country, investing in the future of our town.
Going into Opposition is not easy but we have the experience, knowledge and skills to provide an effective and vigorous challenge to the new administration. If we agree with policies that Labour introduce, we will say so. However if we believe decisions made are not in the best interests of the town, we will not hesitate to be vocal in our criticism.
I would like to thank the residents of the Borough for the support that they gave all of our candidates last Thursday. The overall result is obviously disappointing but we believe that it is better for Crawley to have a mature political party in control of the council rather than an inexperienced group holding the balance of power in a hung council, which would only serve to create inertia and instability which would not be good for the people of Crawley.
The Labour Group will take control at the Annual Council meeting on 13th June. We wish Councillor Peter Lamb and his new team well with their new administration. We can assure the residents of Crawley that we will remain committed to the best interests of the town and will work hard in the Council to this end.
The main task before the summer recess is to agree a Local Plan which will be coming to Council in July. We as a group will continue to argue for a plan that will prove acceptable to the Independent Planning Inspectorate. This will be the first real test of the calibre of the new administration and we can assure everyone that we will not hesitate to hold them to account if they fail to come up with a realistic proposal.
Councillor Dr Howard Bloom, Leader of Crawley Borough Council Conservative Group
27th May 2014