On Thursday 2nd May, our town will vote for who serves us on Crawley Borough Council in the years ahead. Unusually, all seats on the council are up for election this year; meaning everyone will get two or three votes, depending on how many councillors are being elected for their ward, instead of the usual one.
This gives us the chance to not just hope for a better Crawley, but to vote for it.
I’m very much aware of the temptation to use these elections to declare frustrations over Brexit. Having consistently voted in Parliament against delaying the UK’s EU exit, I greatly sympathise with this position, however when I’m out and about listening to Crawley residents and supporting our fantastic Conservative candidates, it provides a stark reminder of what these elections are about.
These are local elections, not national ones, where the strength of our neighbourhoods and the cleanliness of our town centre can be improved after polling day.
The current Town Hall leadership have failed to keep Crawley clean, issuing press releases rather than fines for littering. A Conservative Council will take pride in our community, challenging this anti-social behaviour and ensuring a deterrent against spoiling our local area.
In recent years we’ve also seen the Council’s leadership go way over budget on a botched IT project. Conservative councillors will not lose sight of the fact that all Council funds are in fact local taxpayers’ hard-earned money.
The Government’s Help to Buy schemes have seen more than 170 Crawley families get the security of their own home; a contrast to Labour’s record, including the £1.4 million from the sale of council houses which was meant to be spent on new homes in Crawley but actually wasn’t.
We can do better than this. By giving our local Conservative candidates the opportunity to serve Crawley, we can ensure a brighter future for our town.
Henry Smith MP