Crawley councillors have agreed to make a submission to the government setting out the case for a new unitary authority with Reigate & Banstead Borough Council.
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00:00Well, I'm Councillor Michael Jones, I'm a leader at Crawley Borough Council and I've just come from a meeting of the full council where we decided to agree a submission, a joint submission with Rygate and Banstead Borough Council to government setting out the case for a new unitary authority that would cover the Crawley and Rygate and Banstead areas.
00:25Now, we think this is the best thing to propose at this time because we need to keep our options open. Local government is going to change and we need to find something which actually ensures that Crawley doesn't lose its identity, that we are in an area that makes sense, that we're in communities that have something in common with each other and something that most importantly doesn't create a hard boundary.
00:53Right across the biggest economic functioning area in the region. And that would not make sense when we're on the brink of expansion at Gatwick Airport.
01:04There are strong reasons for doing that for many reasons. They include in terms of health service, improved transport and infrastructure, all the things, the public services that we need.
01:19We need to create local government that makes sense for the 21st century, not something that was created in the Victorian era.
01:26The one thing I'd like to reassure as well is we are not going to become a London borough. There are suggestions that somehow this is going to mean that we'll get absorbed by London.
01:35That is not the case. What we are doing is we're creating the right arrangements.
01:42There is no change to your geographical or your postal address. If you live in Sussex now, you'll still live in Sussex. If you live in Surrey now, you'll still live in Surrey.
01:52It is simply about how your public services, your local government public services are provided.
01:58What will happen now is there was a vote at Crawley Borough Council tonight where the majority of councillors agreed to support the submission.
02:06The Cabinet has now done the formal work that will send that to government and now this goes to government and it is up to them to consider it.
02:14And the reality is that the government doesn't have to accept what we've said.
02:18But the important thing, I think, is that we're trying to ensure that with all the deadlines that are happening at the moment,
02:24that we keep our options open and that we look at not just this solution, but also other solutions in West Sussex that we might also form a part of.
02:34But the important thing now is to ensure that we get that choice and that the interests at the end of the day of all Crawley residents are not lost in the new arrangements.
02:45And that's very important.