A Great Result For Crawley

This week, in my first Crawley Observer column since the election, I have written about the positive outcomes in the elections here in Crawley. I am of course delighted to have been re-elected in Furnace Green and to see my colleague Francis Guidera newly elected as Borough Councillor for Tilgate.    

Crawley's winning team in 2015

"Last week’s elections in Crawley provided a very decisive result. I am delighted that Henry Smith has been re-elected as our MP for Crawley, as well as a Conservative majority government being elected to govern the UK. We also had local elections in Crawley and the change-around from last year could not be starker.

Last year’s local elections saw Labour win control of Crawley Borough Council with a combined vote share across the town of 37% to the Conservatives 35%. Last week saw the Conservatives secure 52% of the Crawley-wide vote with Labour receiving 37%, UKIP receiving 6% and all other candidates combined receiving 5%. Our 12 local election candidates received over 6000 more votes than Labour’s 12 candidates. This saw nine Conservative candidates elected to Labour’s three.

This was a fantastic result for Crawley Conservatives and I am grateful to everyone in Crawley who voted for their local Conservative candidate in last week’s local elections. We decisively gained two Council seats from Labour which takes the political make-up of Crawley Borough Council to 19 Labour and 18 Conservative councillors.

The political make-up of the Council is as close as it can possibly be. There has never been an opposition group on Crawley Borough Council larger than 16 Councillors before. The Conservative group is now 18 members strong out of the total of 37, meaning that we represent 48.65% of the Council.

Our 18 Councillors will work with Labour’s 19 Councillors for the benefit of the town and I hope that Labour are accepting of the expressed wishes of Crawley’s voters, by jointly working with us and sharing Council responsibilities among more Councillors than just their own. Our new larger team of Councillors is looking forward to serving the town and will always put the interests of Crawley first.

There will be political uncertainty going forward, but I give an undertaking that the good running of the Council will be paramount for Crawley’s Conservatives. We plan to work with Crawley Labour to ensure this and hope they show mutual respect towards us, so that together we can deliver for Crawley. "