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In 2014, I led Labour back into administration at Crawley Borough Council after eight years of Conservative control, the only period of Conservative control in the history of the borough. Over those nine years we have to steer the town through Austerity, Brexit, COVID, and a Cost of Living crisis, for two years of which…
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In 2012, Crawley Labour regained three seats from the Conservatives, the first major gains for the party since the early 1990s. At that point it became clear that the 2014 Crawley Borough Council elections would be a genuine contest for control of the council. As the newly-appointed Leader of the Opposition I then dedicated the…
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Shocking new figures reveal that a third of the county’s bus services have been axed under the Conservatives. Despite the Conservatives promising “bus services so frequent you wouldn’t need a timetable”, in 2022 the total number of miles driven by buses in West Sussex has plummeted by 7,800,000 miles compared to five years ago. Nationally…
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In all the years I have been knocking doors, I don’t think I’ve ever found a resident with anything good to say about West Sussex County Council. The most obvious reason for this antipathy is that the council really isn’t very good, something league tables of county-tier services regularly highlight. Of course, a lack of…
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There’s now less than a week left until Election Day. Hundreds of Crawley residents have already returned their postal votes and parties are gearing up for their efforts to get the vote out. So, what is at stake? Throughout all the years where the media suggested we would lose control of the council, I motivated…
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The latest incomes tracker produced for ASDA by the Centre for Economics and Business Research makes for depressing reading. A combination of inflation and real-terms pay cuts have seen UK households suffer an average cut of £20.77 in their disposable income compared to this time last year, a reduction in living standards equivalent to £1,080.04…
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The average family in Crawley has seen the price of the weekly food shop rise by a staggering £700 per year. The latest figures reveal a total hit to our community’s 45,500 households of £31,850,000, with knock-on effects to other local businesses which rely upon families’ discretionary spending. The figures come as the cost of…
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In what will come as a surprise to no one, Labour’s attempt this afternoon to get real action on sewage being discharged into Britain’s water ways was prevented by Conservative MPs, albeit by a convoluted route which I will explain in a minute. The motion put forward by Labour stated: That this House calls on…
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This afternoon, I attended a workshop with other local stakeholders to discuss Southern Water’s ‘Turnaround Plan 2023-25’. The need for such a plan shouldn’t come as a huge surprise. In 2021, the company was fined a record £90m for illegally dumping sewage along the coast, around the same time the news of untreated sewage being…
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While working on another project as part of my day job, I recently came across the map of Internet User Classifications set out by the Consumer Data Research Centre. Organisations like the CDRC produce this type of research in order to help their clients better understand their consumers, what they want and how to reach…
