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Christmas is upon us and whether or not this time of year holds religious significance for you, or even if your friends regard you as the Grinch of their group, I hope everyone enjoys the next few days spending time with those they care about and recharging their batteries for the year to come. On…
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This week, Crawley Borough Council will adopt its Local Plan, in so doing setting out how all the land in Crawley can be used for the next fifteen years. I know council issues can seem quite dry, particularly planning, but when it comes to our responsibilities this is a big deal. Many councils struggle to…
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Last week the Chancellor released his Comprehensive Spending Review. While the key figures in his speech made the headlines, the reality is that it takes time to unpick exactly what the impact of the announcements will be on actual services, particularly when it comes to excessively complicated local government funding structures. The picture already looks…
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It’s too easy to forget that the Fire Service is there, yet we go about our lives knowing if the worst happens there’s always someone there who will pull us out of a burning building, cut us from a wrecked car or tackle that rare emergency we wouldn’t dare approach. The times we need a…
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On Friday the county council voted to increase National Debt. Few people know that council debt counts towards the national figure, whilst Tory councillors frequently blame unpopular decisions on the National Debt, they never acknowledge their direct role in creating it. Throughout the Labour Government, Tory county councillors claimed West Sussex wasn’t receiving large enough…
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Last week, Crawley Borough Council set its budget strategy for the coming year. The new strategy builds upon the one employed over the past year and remains true to the commitments outlined in Labour’s local manifestos. Labour balanced last year’s budget and are on course to do so this year, but in recognising a spending…
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Two major announcements for local government came out of conference season, both from Conservative Conference. The most reported part of the Chancellor’s speech was that business rates would in future be retained by councils. Even without the ability to vary rates in both directions this could be great news, yet councils have responded with considerable…
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Local government is responsible for almost a quarter of public spending, so it’s not surprising councils have seen significant cuts under the Government’s austerity agenda. Yet, while Cameron praised councils in 2010 as the ‘most efficient’ part of the public sector, during his term of office council budgets have shrunk twice as fast as central…
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One of local government’s main responsibilities is planning, be that ruling on individual applications–such as for an extension—or strategically planning how towns and communities will evolve over coming decades. Planning is one of those issues which can seem boring or irrelevant until it forces you to engage with it. Most people’s first contact with the…
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When Labour last ran the council we built up over £100m in reserves, through proper investment this enabled Crawley to finance services most towns could only dream of. Regaining control in 2014 we found that despite eight years’ of cuts, much of the council’s reserves had been spent or were committed to projects so far…
Peter Lamb for Crawley 