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Crawley Borough Council is encouraging local businesses to become accredited Living Wage employers, with the aim of making Crawley a Living Wage town. On Monday the new UK rate which is independently calculated to meet the cost of living, was announced by the Living Wage Foundation. Employees outside of London will see a rise of…
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It seems scarcely a year goes by without another major leak showing the vast scale of tax evasion and avoidance by some of Britain’s wealthiest, and all-too-often most powerful, figures. Let’s be clear: this is money that should be going towards paying for schools and hospitals, paying for the police and the armed forces or…
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A couple of months back I was interviewed by Tribune, the long-running magazine of the Left, for a piece they were writing on Labour’s performance in the South East at the last General Election and where local parties might go from here. With so much going on across the region, my extended waffling was understandably reduced to…
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A few years ago, Crawley Borough Council passed its Local Plan, outlining how from a planning perspective all the space in the town should be used, this is something all councils are required to do to avoid their planning decisions being overturned on appeal. These plans are often controversial, arousing strong passions in neighbourhoods over…
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In a week where we’re asked remember the costs and sacrifices of war, it would be tasteless to engage in party politics. Instead, we should use this opportunity to recognise the enduring role of Remembrance in our community. Next year is the centenary of the armistice which marked the end of the First World War…
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Last week I visited Elekta on Manor Royal to see the final works taking place to their new Cornerstone building, which will significantly increase the scale of the company’s operations in the town. Elekta produce some of the world’s most advanced medical technology, they have a long history in the business district and their new building…
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‘A spectre is haunting Europe — the spectre of communism,’ so wrote Karl Marx in his opening to the Communist Manifesto in 1848. Communism has been on quite a journey for the last 169 years, at its peak a third of the world’s population lived in states which self-identified as Communist and while we are…
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This week is Youth Work Week, a time when we’re asked to remember all those people who are helping our young people to gain the confidence and the skills they need to move on in the world. When I was first elected onto Crawley Borough Council, Northgate had recently lost its youth club and over…
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Today saw the annual veteran car run from London to Brighton take place and, as per usual, the event ran straight through Crawley. The run is the world’s oldest motoring event, having taken place every year since 1896, and every year residents get to enjoy seeing the cars up close as their occupants take a…
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Last week, Crawley Open House, Crawley Police and Crawley Borough Council were running a stall encouraging ‘Diverted Giving’ in the High Street. Diverted Giving involves helping those who are in need on our streets by donating to those charities which are set up to support rough sleepers, rather than giving them the money or goods…
Peter Lamb for Crawley 