On May 2nd, Crawley residents will have the chance to vote in the West Sussex County Council elections.
Voter turnout is on average lower than that of the Crawley Borough Council elections, but the vast majority of our council tax goes to the county council to run services here in Crawley.
Schools, education, social care, fire service, roads, pavements, transport, libraries... the list goes on.
By voting on May 2nd, you can make a real difference to who speaks up for Crawley.
Over the last four years, Labour county councillors have successfully fought to keep youth centres open, spoke up against the terrible cuts in adult social care, campaigned successfully to keep social workers based in Crawley and to keep bus routes running throughout the town.
As a Crawley Borough councillor, I have heard tragic stories of how the cuts to county council services have hurt Crawley people. And these cuts are hitting the most vulnerable in our town.
The Conservatives at the county council have said publicly that “no front line services have been affected” but try telling that to the young people in Ifield who’s youth wing was shut, or to those older people who used Maidenbower Day Centre as a social lifeline and are no longer allowed to.
You just have to look at the state of the roads across Crawley to realise that Crawley gets a raw deal. The Tories at County Hall have voted for millions to be given to Chichester Festival Theatre and Chichester Harbour over the years.
At West Sussex County Council, £10million of tax payers money has been put aside to provide faster broadband across the county, whereas Kent County Council got BT to help foot the bill of its broadband roll-out to the tune of £19.6million. What did Crawley get in the last wave of financial hand-outs? A few hundred thousand for Manor Royal, if you’ve seen the roads in our commercial heartland, you’ll know that won’t go very far.
The county council elections are important as so many of Crawley’s services are run by the County council. And when you go to the ballot box, ask yourself – who will really speak up for the people of Crawley.