Crawley Borough Council is to decide whether or not it wants to postpone May’s elections.
The Government has given the council until Thursday (January 15) to say whether it wants to postpone and whether doing so would release essential resources, time and money needed to deliver Local Government Reorganisation.
The situation will be debated at an extraordinary meeting of the full council, which has been called for Wednesday (January 14).
Michael Jones, leader of the council, said that, while he personally favoured proceeding with the elections, he would ‘honour the will of the majority of the whole council’.
Labour and Conservative councillors will both be given a free vote – voting for what they want rather than having to adhere to party lines.
In September, West Sussex County Council and the seven district and borough councils submitted plans to the Government detailing how they felt the county’s new unitary authority – or authorities – should be formed.
Crawley’s preference was for two authorities, with itself, Horsham and Mid Sussex making up one of them. The county council preferred one authority covering the entire county.
The Government’s public consultation on these plans opened in November and closes on Sunday. A decision is expected in March.
Once the decision is made, elections will be organised for May 2027. Both the borough and county council will then be dissolved to make way for the new authority.
In May 2028, people will be called on to vote in the first Sussex-wide Mayoral elections.
The extraordinary council meeting will be held at the Town Hall, in The Boulevard, at 7.30pm, followed by a meeting of the cabinet, where the decision will be confirmed.
Members of the public are welcome to attend.
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