Crawley local elections postponed

Crawley Borough Council has voted to ask the Government to postpone May’s borough elections.

The decision was made on Wednesday evening (January 14) following a meeting during which councillors were allowed to ignore party lines and vote how they saw fit.

The Government wrote to eligible councils in December giving them until Thursday (January 15) to say whether they wanted to postpone and whether doing so would release essential resources, time and money needed to deliver Local Government Reorganisation.

CEO Ian Duke said the letter ‘came as a surprise’ and that planning for both the borough and county elections was ‘well under way’.

He added: “Local Government Reorganisation does indeed create additional burden on the council – however, to date, no organisational capacity constraints have been identified that would result in us as officers making any recommendation for the postponement of elections.”

Despite this, 17 councillors voted in favour of postponement, while 14 wanted the elections to go ahead and two abstained.

The vote was then put to the cabinet for the final say. Leader Michael Jones, who voted for the elections to go ahead, previously said he would honour the will of the majority of the whole council.

The cabinet did just that by agreeing that the authority would request a postponement.

The final decision lies solely with the Government, though no date has been set for when that decision will be made.

Mr Jones said: “Even though we are saying we do not wish to proceed with elections in May, it is important to dispel some myths that, without these, there is going to be some kind of long-term democratic deficit.”

He pointed out that all-out elctions for the new unitary authority would take place in May 2027, with the borough and county council then being dissolved.

If all goes as planned, that year will also see elections to the new Crawley Town Council.

In May 2028, people will be called on to vote in the first Sussex-wide Mayoral elections.

Mr Jones said: “There is going to be no shortage of opportunity to vote, and it is a fairly extraordinary achievemet – if that is how it can be described – that people out there have been able to get the impression otherwise.

“I do hope those in Governmet reflect on how this public perception has been allowed to take hold and what they could do to dispel it in the future.”

Conservative leader Duncan Crow voted in favour of postponement.

He said: “It is going to be important how we work together to get the best for Crawley. We need to be fighting Crawley’s corner.

“We don’t know what outcome we’re going to have as a new unitary authority. We’re going to be having different political parties that we’re not used to seeing in Crawley who, potentially, could be controlling that unitary authority.

“We need to be fighting Crawley’s corner together and we need to make sure that we get the best going into that unitary authority for Crawley.”

As for the unitary authority itself, in September, West Sussex County Council and the seven district and borough councils submitted plans to the Government detailing how they felt the county’s new authority – or authorities – should be formed.

Crawley’s preference was for two authorities, with itself, Horsham and Mid Sussex making up one of them. The county council preferred one authority covering the entire county.

A decision is expected in March.

How the councillors voted on the borough elections:

• Khayla Abu Mosa (Lab, Northgate & West Green) – postpone
• Marion Ayling (Lab, Bewbush & North Broadfield) – go ahead
• Olu Adeniyi (Lab, Tilgate) – postpone
• Imran Ashraf (Lab,  Langley Green & Tushmore) – postpone
• Esther Barrott (Lab, Gossops Green & North East Broadfield) – go-ahead
• Tina Belben (Con, Pound Hill North & Forge Wood) – postpone
• Thomas Bidwell (Con, Pound Hill South & Worth) – abstain
• Brenda Burgess (Con, Three Bridges) – postpone
• Craig Burke (Con, Pound Hill South & Worth) – go ahead
• Shelly Bushnell (Lab, Langley Green & Tushmore) – postpone
• Julian Charatan (Lab, Ifield) – go ahead
• Duncan Crow (Con, Furnace Green) – postpone
• Nick Hilton (Lab, Pound Hill North & Forge Wood) – go ahead
• Ian Irvine (Lab, Broadfield) – go ahead
• Kim Jaggard (Con, Maidenbower) – postpone
• Gurinder Jhans (Lab, Northgate & West Green) – go ahead
• Michael Jones (Lab, Bewbush & North Broadfield) – go ahead
• Imtiaz Khan (Con, Maidenbower) – postpone
• Kiran Khan (Lab, Broadfield) – go ahead
• Yasmin Khan (Lab, Southgate) – postpone
• Tim Lunnon (Lab, Broadfield) – postpone
• Chris Mullins (Lab, Gossops Green & North East Broadfield) – postpone
• Sue Mullins (Lab, Northgate & West Green) – postpone
• Maureen Mwagale (Con, Tilgate) – postpone
• Atif Nawaz (Lab, Three Bridges) – abstain
• Bob Noyce (Lab, Southgate) – go ahead
• Dipesh Patel (Lab, Southgate) – go ahead
• Steve Pritchard (Lab, Three Bridges) – postpone
• Dominic Ramsay (Con, Maidenbower) – go ahead
• Tahira Rana (Lab, Langley Green & Tushmore) – postpone
• Justin Russell (Lab, Pound Hill North & Forge Wood) – go ahead
• Sharmila Sivarajah (Lab, Bewbush & North Broadfield) – go ahead
• Beni Yianni (Lab, Ifield) – postpone

Jilly Hart (Lab, Ifield), Hazel Hellier (Con, Furnace Green) and Bob Lanzer (Con, Pound Hill South & Worth) did not attend the meeting.

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