A sense of fairness is something that comes naturally to most of us. Perhaps somewhat naively, this was something that I used to also assume was true in political life. Disappointingly, through my own political experience, I have learned that not only does Labour not demonstrate a sense of fairness, that some Labour Councillors actively pursue an agenda of promoting unfairness in Crawley.
For example, I have observed the entire Labour Councillor group vote against supporting English Votes for English Laws. This was before the general election when Labour had the majority of Scottish MPs. I can quote several more examples but column space only allows me to focus on Labour’s latest promotion of unfairness in Crawley, that being their proposals for the West Sussex County Council boundary review.
In Crawley we have nine West Sussex County Councillors with the theory being that each should represent roughly the same number of people, in order to have equality of electorate. Because of population changes, there is currently a boundary review and the current County Council boundaries in Crawley are no longer fit for purpose. This was demonstrated in the 2013 County Council elections when Labour won six of Crawley’s nine seats with 37% of the Crawley vote with the Conservatives winning the other three on 34% of the Crawley vote.
Labour want their unfair electoral advantage to continue and have proposed a County Council boundary scheme in Crawley that deliberately splits communities in five of Crawley’s neighbourhoods, including in Three Bridges, Northgate and West Green. This will also mean that Conservative-leaning neighbourhoods of Pound Hill and Maidenbower will unfairly have thousands more people per County Councillor than the more Labour-leaning parts of the town.
Sadly for democratic fairness, the Boundary Commission are recommending and consulting on Labour’s scheme and may adopt it when their consultation ends next month. There is an alternative proposal that I am recommending that only involves three neighbourhoods having to be split, with Three Bridges, Northgate and West Green all kept together as whole neighbourhoods. However, with Labour Councillors dominant in Crawley, don’t expect fairness to prevail.
Councillor Duncan Crow, Leader of Crawley Borough Council Conservative Group
6th January 2016