In 2014, I faced my first council election as Leader of the Opposition on Crawley Borough Council. We knew that–with a bit of luck and a good campaign–after eight years in opposition we were finally in a position where we could regain control of the council. We also knew that if we didn’t have a plan for how we would deliver on our values in office, that all our efforts would have been entirely pointless.
That’s why we had spent the previous two years trawling through every form of data we could get on the town and meeting with community leaders and local businesses, so that we could identify the challenges facing the town and produce a realistic plan for how we could address them. We had often been told how tight money was, so we ensured that our proposals would either be cost-neutral or revenue generating for the council’s general fund. We produced a manifesto not just to show residents we were serious about delivering for the town, but because it was vital to ensuring we actually would deliver for the town.
At every borough council election since, we have produced a manifesto setting out how we intend to move the town forward over the following year. They can all still be found on the party’s website here.
This is a major contrast with the town’s other parties. From memory, out of the eight borough council elections in the last decade the Conservatives have produced a manifesto twice (nothing so far this year), with no other party making any effort.
I find this deeply revealling, not only in how little confidence they have of their own prospects of winning, but that they simply do not have any idea of what they would do with council control if they got it.
Last week, Crawley Labour published our council manifesto for the year, setting out not only what we want to deliver for the town, but how we intend to do it. From more affordable housing to tackling climate change, from improving the town’s job opportunities to investing in the town’s leisure and cultural activities.
It’s a series of promises from a local party which knows and loves the community it belongs to, building on what we have already delivered, to make Crawley the amazing place we all want it to be.
Peter Lamb for Crawley 