Crawley Borough Council

Crawley Borough Council is the local authority for Crawley in West Sussex, England. It consists of 36 councillors and is currently controlled by the Labour Party, led by Michael Jones. The administrative headquarters are at Crawley Town Hall.

Crawley Borough Council
Type
Type	Non-metropolitan district
Leadership
Mayor	Sharmila Sivarajah, Labour since 24 May 2024[1][2]
Leader	Michael Jones, Labour since 27 May 2022[3]
Chief Executive	Ian Duke since 25 September 2023[4]
Structure
Seats	36 councillors
Political groups	Administration (25)   Labour (25) Opposition (11)   Conservative (11)
Length of term	4 years
Elections
Last election	2 May 2024
Next election	7 May 2026
Meeting place
Town Hall, The Boulevard, Crawley, RH10 0ZZ
Website
crawley.gov.uk

History

Prior to 1956 Crawley had been governed as a rural parish within the Horsham Rural District. The parish was significantly enlarged in 1933 when the neighbouring parish of Ifield was abolished. Following the designation of Crawley as a new town in 1947,^[5] the parish was further enlarged in 1953 to take in the Three Bridges area from the neighbouring parish of Worth.^[6]

The parish of Crawley was made an urban district in 1956.^[7][8]

The urban district was reconstituted as a non-metropolitan district on 1 April 1974 under the Local Government Act 1972, gaining the parts of the parishes of Slaugham and Worth within the designated area for the new town, plus Gatwick Airport and adjoining areas from the Surrey parishes of Charlwood and Horley.^[9][10] The reformed district was awarded borough status at the same time, allowing the chair of the council to take the title of mayor.^[11]

Governance

Crawley Borough Council provides district-level services. County-level services are provided by West Sussex County Council.^[12] There are no civil parishes in the borough, which is an unparished area.^[13]

Political control

The council has been under Labour majority control since 2022.^[14]

Political control of the council since the 1974 reforms has been as follows:^[15][16]

Party in control		Years
	Labour	1974–2006
	Conservative	2006–2006
	No overall control	2006–2007
	Conservative	2007–2014
	Labour	2014–2020
	No overall control	2020–2022
	Labour	2022–present

Leadership

The role of mayor is largely ceremonial in Crawley. Political leadership is instead provided by the leader of the council. The leaders since 1974 have been:

Councillor	Party		From	To
George Waller[17]		Labour	1974	1978
Ben Clay[18]		Labour	1978	1980
Alf Pegler[18][19]		Labour	1980	1982
Tony Edwards[20][21]		Labour	1982	1983
Ben Clay[22][23]		Labour	1983	1986
Alf Pegler[24][25]		Labour	1986	2 Sep 1996
Tony Edwards[26]		Labour	Sep 1996	22 Jun 2000
Chris Redmayne[27][28]		Labour	26 Jul 2000	May 2006
Bob Lanzer[29][30]		Conservative	26 May 2006	Aug 2013
Howard Bloom[31][32]		Conservative	26 Sep 2013	May 2014
Peter Lamb[33][34]		Labour	13 Jun 2014	May 2022
Michael Jones[35]		Labour	27 May 2022

Composition

Following the 2024 election, the composition of the council was:^[36][37]

Party		Councillors
	Labour	25
	Conservative	11
Total		36

The next election is due in 2026.^[38]

Elections

See also: Crawley Borough Council elections

Since the last boundary changes in 2019 the council has comprised 36 councillors representing 13 wards. Each ward elects two or three councillors. Elections are held three years out of every four, with a third of the council being elected each time for a four-year term of office. West Sussex County Council elections are held in the fourth year of the cycle when there are no borough council elections.^[39]

Premises

Old Town Hall: Council's headquarters 1964–2022

The council is based at Crawley Town Hall on the Boulevard, purpose-built for it on the site of the old Civic Hall (in the Town Hall complex built in 1964 for the urban district council) and formally opened on 21 March 2023.^[40][41][42]