Last week’s Full Council meeting at Crawley Borough Council was an appalling spectacle.  At times, what felt like intimidatory behaviour, was being displayed towards opposition Conservative Councillors from some of the much larger cohort of Labour Councillors. 

Fresh from the shambles over the Council’s failed attempt to bounce Crawley into Surrey, there was an agenda item providing an update on local government reorganisation.  A recommendation was presented to “note” the letter from the government that had stopped Crawley joining with Reigate.  We proposed to change “note” to “welcome” and in doing so, I stated that this change could be a good way to apologise for trying this stunt in the first place.  Alas no, things got worse.

I observed aggressive speeches, mocking, and heckling, including when Conservative Councillors were casting their votes.  These are behaviours that tend to occur when trying to deflect from having made bad mistakes.

This meeting also had a Labour motion that was to immediately start the process to go about setting up a ‘Crawley Town Council’.  No information had been provided beforehand.  I had submitted a series of written questions seeking information about the costs and additional Council Tax charges to Crawley residents, but no real answers were forthcoming.

We tabled three amendments to this motion, the first being to stop rushing the launch of the review, until the area for Crawley’s new unitary council was known.  The second was to also consider other options such as smaller parish councils, as potentially neighbourhoods or combinations of neighbourhoods, might prefer their own one. 

Our third amendment was that if any proposals to set up any town or parish council(s) come from the review, that a binding Crawley referendum be held at the same time as scheduled elections in either 2026 or 2027, with impartial information supplied, including on what the costs to residents would be.  Every Labour Councillor voted against all three amendments.  You can draw your own conclusions why they don’t trust supplying Crawley residents with accurate impartial information and having the final say on whether to set up a new Town Council or not.     

Councillor Duncan Crow, Leader of Crawley Borough Council Conservative Group

23rd July 2025