The Council will debate the proposed Budget on the 26th February. Crawley has had the lowest increases in Council Tax in Sussex for many years. The conservative group will be proposing a further freeze of the Borough element of the Council Tax for a fourth consecutive year, whilst still protecting frontline services and continuing to spend significant sums of money to improve the town.
The Council will be committing to more than £2m over the next three years on priorities including Disabled Facilities Grants, Community Safety Improvement Projects, water management schemes and a new green gym in Tilgate Park.
We intend to fund maintenance to improve council-owned buildings, including the Town Hall, K2 Crawley and The Hawth as well as investing in new affordable housing and plan to spend £70 million on capital projects over the next three years.
We have been able to make £8.99m of savings and efficiencies in the last six years and continue to invest in the town and encourage investors from both the public and private sectors.
We will be proposing a balanced budget and will continue to strive to offer good value for money and effective services for our tax payers.
There has been interest raised at the County Council by UKIP members in creating a Unitary Authority for the whole of West Sussex. This would result in the abolition of all the District and Borough Councils including Crawley Borough Council. This proposal could result in some financial savings each year. However the abolition of Crawley Borough Council would result in decisions on local issues being made in Chichester and would go against the concept of local decisions being made by local residents.
West Sussex covers a large area with over three quarters of a million residents. Crawley has significant differences to the other Borough and Districts in the County. As an expanding town with the second busiest airport in the county it has different pressures and needs. We are all aware of the concept of localism and having a local council with local councillors responsible for local decisions fits in much better than having decisions made for us by people who are not familiar with Crawley and its diverse and multicultural population.
There are benefits to having a Unitary Authority as there is often confusion over the responsibilities of the Borough and County Councils. One way forward could be for Crawley to become a Unitary Authority in its own right, becoming what used to be termed a County Borough where it holds responsibility for all services currently controlled by the Borough and County Councils.
Councillor Dr Howard Bloom, Leader of Crawley Borough Council
23rd February 2014