Crawley political council leaders to discuss joining forces

Labour council leader Peter Lamb has agreed to meet his Conservative counterpart Duncan Crow to see if an agreement can be reached about the future running of the authority

The council was thrown into turmoil last week when mother and son Karen Sudan and Rory Fiveash jumped ship from Labour to became Independent members.

Their decision left the council with 17 Conservative councillors, 16 Labour and two independents, with one seat vacant following the death of Geraint Thomas in November.

Now the Labour group has asked leader Peter Lamb to take up an invitation from his opposite number Duncan Crow to discuss the possibility of joining forces as the town battles the impact of the coronavirus.

In a letter to Mr Crow, Mr Lamb said: “We belong to different parties of very different beliefs, beliefs which in any ordinary circumstances would make joint-working impossible.

“However, current circumstances are far from ordinary.”

Things have been rather bleak for the town, since the pandemic reared its ugly head, with 57 per cent of jobs at risk – many at Gatwick Airport – and a gap in its budget of more than £2m.

Mr Lamb said that gap would lead to some ‘serious financial decisions’ having to be taken in the next year.

He said: “Whoever is administration needs to be able to rely upon significant support at council meetings to ensure necessary decisions are taken to address these problems.

“Crawley residents have chosen a majority administration to run the town at every election in the history of the borough, as they did when we last went to the polls.

“Recent events mean that no such majority exists.

“We owe it to the town to resolve the current impasse.”

He told Mr Crow that the Labour Group had asked him to take up the offer of talks ‘to see what, if any, agreement can be reached’.

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