Crawley Borough Council’s underwhelming consultation on the proposal from Labour Councillors to create an additional ‘Crawley Town Council’ concludes on Monday 1 December. The consultation can be accessed via the council’s website and I encourage participation, whatever your views.
One week before the deadline, I’ve yet to receive the consultation leaflet in the post that we were told would be mailed to every Crawley household. Several of my fellow councillors haven’t received it either and I’ve heard some residents say this too. This postal delivery failing of the consultation leaflet feels systemic of the whole exercise being premature, seeking a rushed determination to create a new town council.
I have concerns about what Crawley could be sleepwalking in to. We’ve managed perfectly fine up to now without any additional tier of town or parish council, which elsewhere can have a reputation of being expensive talking shops that don’t actually do very much.
Whichever way it’s calculated, introducing any new additional tier of local government will mean people pay more Council Tax overall. Local government is already being disrupted and reorganised in two-tier areas like ours, to create new unitary authorities, like much of England already has.
We can expect much pain and upfront cost in creating a new unitary authority covering Crawley, especially if the government decide on two councils within West Sussex rather than one, which would mean an extra £30 million in running costs every year. The government will decide next year on what our new unitary authority will be. This pain and cost in going from two-tier local government down to one, may feel a huge waste of time and money if we simultaneously go back up to two-tier by setting up a town council.
The current consultation offers no information on what the additional Council Tax may be. When you see that for Band D properties, Lewes Town Council charges £231.16 and Littlehampton Town Council £153.51, one can deduce why Labour Councillors voted down our Conservative Group amendment, that any decision to set up a new town council be subject to a referendum of Crawley residents.
Councillor Duncan Crow, Leader of Crawley Borough Council Conservative Group
26th November 2025
