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Founded as part of the successful efforts to secure a City Deal for the region, since 2014 the Greater Brighton Economic Board has led the way in delivering almost £200m of investment across Adur, Brighton, Lewes, Mid Sussex, and Worthing. In the years which followed, Greater Brighton’s boundaries expanded to include Arun and Crawley, with…
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Last week I attended a fundraising event for Free Shop, a local organisation which has been providing financially strained families with access to food and other essentials since November 2020. During the pandemic, which saw Crawley experience record levels of unemployment, they have played a vital role, filling a gap which would have otherwise led…
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In past columns, I’ve written a lot about the pain younger generations have suffered since the Conservatives took power. Not without reason, these generations are the first in modern times to receive a worse deal than that of their parents. Whether it’s cuts to Education and the massive increase in University fees, being unable to…
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This May marks ten years since I became Labour Leader on Crawley Borough Council. To say a lot has happened in that time is an understatement, given the general chaos in which the country now seems to find itself plunged into once crisis or another year after year. Yet, for everything which has happened, a…
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A week on from the Spring Statement and the fallout has yet to end. The statement not only failed to meaningfully address the cost of living crisis affecting households across the UK, but their subsequent spin revealed a Government deeply out of touch with how most people live their lives. This crisis didn’t come out…
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A Crawley Borough Council housing development named after Geraint Thomas, who was the council’s cabinet member for Environmental Services and Sustainability when he sadly passed away in November 2019, was officially recognised today in a short ceremony outside the building. The site was named Geraint Thomas House in honour of former councillor Geraint Thomas. From…
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Today is the second National Day of Reflection, a day dedicated to those lost during the course of the pandemic, two years on from the UK’s first lockdown. It’s hard to overstate the impact COVID-19 has had on the UK, the level of government restrictions and interventions alone are unlike anything experienced before during peacetime.…
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‘We’re all in this together’, that’s what George Osborne said just before the Conservatives took power in 2010. We were told it as we lost jobs and services, as families saw their taxes go up and the cost-of-living bite deep, as the wealthy became the super-wealthy and saw their taxes cut. While the UK Government…
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Since 2020, COVID-19 has drastically cut the council’s sources of income, leading to the cross-party cuts agreed last year, the only cuts made during my time as Leader. While the pandemic lingers on, I’m pleased to say that with hard work, we’ve managed to a deliver a budget this year which is balanced and yet…
Peter Lamb for Crawley 