I thank everyone in Crawley who last week voted for their local hard-working Conservative candidate in the Crawley Borough Council elections, and for Katy Bourne in the Sussex Police and Crime Commissioner election. This set of elections was always going to be challenging, given the seats up for election were last contested in 2021, when we Conservatives had our best set of local election results since 2008.
In May 2021, we won 7 out of the 12 council seats up and only missed out on running the council because of not having the Mayor’s casting vote when due to our seat gains, the 36 member council became tied at 18 Conservative and 18 Labour members. Given that parties in government tend not to do well in local elections after a while in office, this high-water mark was always going to be hard to repeat three years later.
Sadly, while not by huge margins, we did have a disappointing set of local election results last week, losing five of our Crawley seats to Labour. We congratulate Labour on their win, although this does give Labour a very large majority of 14 councillors (25/11) at Crawley Borough Council and could risk complacency setting in. We’ve predictably seen Labour claim the local results are an endorsement of their administration, but I strongly challenge that assertion, given how I’ve had a front row seat to see how poorly several members of their cabinet and some committee chairs, perform.
On the upside, we were pleased to win in Pound Hill South and Worth with a 5% swing to us, as well as in Maidenbower. We welcome two new, young and energetic councillors to our group and we will continue to provide constructive challenge and scrutiny, to a Labour administration that desperately tries to avoid any. Crawley residents can be assured that the town’s Conservative councillors will be standing up for them and our neighbourhoods.
The best result was the re-election of Katy Bourne as our Police and Crime Commissioner for Sussex, although rather than congratulate her, all I’ve seen from Labour councillors is sour grapes.
Councillor Duncan Crow, Leader of Crawley Borough Council Conservative Group
8th May 2024
