The Conservative pledge to reduce net migration to less than 100,000 by 2015 looks set to be blown out of the water.
Net migration is the difference between those leaving and entering the UK and last week it was announced that this jumped to 212,000 to September 2013 and it was driven by 40% of people who had taken advantage of the EU free movement.
This kind of jump has devastating effects on our public services and in Crawley we are not spared of this. It is difficult enough as it is to get a doctor’s appointment or school place for your child.
At my doctor’s surgery I can sometimes wait over a week for an appointment, this is just pure and utter bonkers. We once had an A&E unit at Crawley Hospital and now, despite some services coming back, we still have the same rhetoric being wheeled out from the 2010 general election about a ‘new’ Crawley Hospital.
Homelessness in Crawley amongst family with children has almost doubled which is disgraceful in itself and we still continue to set pointless immigration targets when they mean nothing due to the fact of free movement between EU countries.
Crawley waits to see if the Prime Minister’s key election pledge will be met.