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Representatives of every political party claim to stand up for the interests of the people they were elected to serve and, for all the disagreements over what those interests are and how best to deliver them, most of the time they probably believe it’s what they’re doing. What is much harder to believe is when…
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Last week, TGI Fridays, McDonald’s, Wetherspoons, Deliveroo and UberEats workers joined coordinated action against the low pay and poor working conditions rife in the fast food sector. No one wants strikes, least of all employees living a hand-to-mouth existence and who sacrifice pay in the process, but the only reason any of us have paid…
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Once again the problem is that hard working staff and GMB members are going to bear the brunt of another private contractor failure in Sussex, says GMB Southern GMB, the Union for the Ambulance Service, are calling for early intervention by Sussex combined CCG’s after Patient Transport Provider Thames Ambulance Service Ltd (TASL) announced ten…
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I’m often told when Crawley was built, residents were told there would be homes for ‘you’, for ‘your children’ and for ‘your children’s children’. It was a bold pledge, particularly since the country was bankrupt at the time, but it was also a time when voters felt that the State which had beaten the Far…
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Thomas Bennett can be saved. Once the leading school in West Sussex for Special Needs and with one of the country’s best value added scores, under Academisation the community college has suffered years of cuts which have brought it to the brink of collapse. Teachers have held on desperate to support the kids, but their…
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As Leader of Crawley Borough Council I’ve had two major goals over the last four years: build as much affordable housing for local people as quickly as possible and stop the cuts central government has forced onto the council from getting passed onto local residents. So far we’ve delivered for Crawley, with 1,000 new affordable…
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Louise Goldsmith, the Leader of West Sussex County Council, tells us that cuts to Open House and other housing support services are necessary because they don’t have the money to fund them any longer. Open House receives a grant of £262,075 and I was able to highlight in minutes where the money to save every…
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Last month, I raised concerns over the cut in officers numbers at Sussex Police and the spike in drugs and violence in Crawley which followed. Of course, this was met with denials across the board from local police leadership, yet the visible increase in police presence in Crawley immediately after I called them out and…
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After frantically catching-up following the local elections, Council business usually quietens down over the Summer. This year was different: we’ve redrafted the council’s Corporate Strategy and Transformation Plans (outlining how the organisation will work and what it’s priorities will be over coming years), continued working on redevelopment of the Town Hall site and restructured senior management, ensuring…
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The latest A&E waiting figures were released last month and, as you might imagine, it’s not good news. In the Crawley area 4,473 patients were left waiting over four hours for emergency treatment. At a time when Crawley’s GP provision is on the verge of collapse and the NHS body responsible for paying for all…
Peter Lamb for Crawley 