I attended, along with the Mayor and Mayoress Cllrs Bob and Brenda Burgess, the opening of the Three Bridges Rail Operating Centre in Three Bridges by our MP Henry Smith on the 7th January. This will become the permanent operational centre for Sussex Rail running the Brighton line between London and Brighton as well as other branch lines in East and West Sussex and Surrey.
Construction of the Centre started in 2011 and has allowed modernisation of the signalling system across the Sussex route and will make the railway more efficient and more reliable using state of the art computer control equipment involving Network Rail and Southern staff working side by side.
The project will result in a gain in employment within the town of around 900 jobs when fully operational. This will also lead to more complex signalling technology being introduced improving train traffic management by 2019 and beyond and being able to cope with the 20% increase in trains in the last decade and a 50% increase in passenger numbers. It is planned that the rail system will become much more pro active with improved train control and better services for passengers.
Crawley Question Time will take place on Wednesday 5th February starting at 6.30 pm in the Civic Hall. This annual event, previously called The Crawley Debate, takes the form of a general debate and discussion. There are no set topics this year so residents can raise any areas or concerns such as community safety, health, council issues or matters relating to the economy.
The panellists include myself; Councillor Peter Lamb, Inspector Justina Beeken, Dr Amit Bhargava, and Chris Maidment, Chair of the Local Economy Action Group.
I feel this event enables panel and audience members to discuss issues raised by Crawley’s residents and businesses and we are keen to hear people’s views on key issues facing the town and I ‘would urge you to register and come along to Crawley Question Time. The views and comments will help the Council and others to plan work on improving services and the town in general.
If you would like to ask a question or just listen to the debate, then you need to register by visiting www.crawley.gov.uk/questiontime or calling Ayesha Twyman on 01293 438685. If you can not make the debate you can follow it on Twitter on the night by using the hashtag #CrawleyQT.
Councillor Dr Howard Bloom, Leader of Crawley Borough Council