Good leadership requires a broad range of skills including a balanced and measured approach when seeking to represent everyone fairly. For Crawley Borough Council, effective leadership should include having constructive engagement with partner organisation such as Crawley Police and West Sussex County Council, not trolling them both on Twitter to try and make yourself look good to advance your ambitions to become an MP, which sadly is the case with Crawley’s current Council leader. Regrettably, he has also publicly talked down our local schools which is something I will never do.
As leader of the Opposition at Crawley Borough Council, I support the Council when they are doing the right thing and lead on alternative policies when things could be improved. I help to ensure Crawley Borough Council has a credible alternative that could run the Council effectively in the interests of Crawley.
Next May, Crawley Borough Council will have a whole Council election following a local government boundary review. While each neighbourhood will elect individual councillors, the party with the most councillors will form the administration, including the leader of the Council. Two very different potential Council leaders will be on offer to the people of Crawley. It is my view that the current leader of the Council (who is also Labour’s Parliamentary candidate in Crawley) is taking his eye off the ball from his Council leader role and is increasingly using that role as a platform for his parliamentary ambitions and therefore for Jeremy Corbyn to become Prime Minister.
While there is of course nothing wrong in seeking higher elected office, it would be remiss of me in my current role not to point out how on this Council leader’s watch, a failure to act has resulted in the Council losing a huge £1.6 million that was designated for local affordable housing. The Council also has a massive overspend of hundreds of thousands on the relocation of the Council’s computer servers. I seek no higher elected office than becoming Council leader and my focus would solely be on that role to ensure the Council actually delivers for Crawley.
Councillor Duncan Crow, Leader of Crawley Borough Council Conservative Group
3rd October 2018