At the Full Council meetings of Crawley Borough Council, I always see the Council Leader tell everyone what a great job he and his administration are doing and how well the Council is being run by them.  I also note that I never see any errors being admitted, but we all know that things can and do go wrong at any local Council, including Crawley. 

This is why for opposition Conservative Councillors, being able to monitor and scrutinise actual performance data is important.  Our role is to hold the Labour administration and their large majority to account, and advocating for the best possible Council performance for the people of Crawley. 

Unlike at Conservative-run West Sussex County Council, that publishes a host of key performance indicators every quarter and has councillors scrutinise them in public, there has long been a lack of transparency at Labour-run Crawley Borough Council, where performance indicators are kept hidden and not released.   

This was why at the Full Council meeting of 22 February 2023, I proposed an amendment that was an addition to the Council’s Corporate Plan 2023-2027.  This amendment was: "b) Publish quarterly and annual Key Performance Indicators for the four years of the Corporate Plan, in order for the performance and progress of the Corporate Plan to be transparent and able to be monitored by Crawley residents."

This was agreed and became Council policy.  However, I kept waiting to see when published performance indicators would ever appear.  In December 2024, the Council was examined by an external Local Government Association Peer Review, with the findings published in June 2025.  The following statements were published in their Executive Summary. “Crawley’s approach to performance management is shaped by the corporate plan” adding that “information is not shared collectively with Cabinet, Overview and Scrutiny, or with residents, thus limiting transparency.”

Therefore, I’m trying again by tabling a transparency motion at this week’s Full Council meeting on Wednesday evening, seeking publication of quarterly and annual Corporate Plan performance indicators, plus seeking a public apology from the Council’s Labour leadership for their failure to implement previously agreed Council policy.   

Councillor Duncan Crow, Leader of Crawley Borough Council Conservative Group

16th July 2025