Tories attacked for delaying cemetery and Travellers' site decision - Sussex

From the Crawley News

THE Crawley Labour leader has labelled the town's Conservative group "weak" and "incapable" for delaying some of the biggest decisions affecting the town.

An e-mail was sent to councillors last week stating that a draft version of Crawley Borough Council's Local Plan, Crawley 2029, was to be deferred for nine weeks. The plan will outline major decisions such as where a new cemetery will be built, the location of a permanent Travellers' site and major housing developments.

The decision to defer was taken by acting council leader Claire Denman and a senior council officer, who cited the impending election of a new council leader and changes to the cabinet as the reasons behind it.

Labour leader Peter Lamb has criticised the decision, particularly as he had requested in July that the public consultation be extended.

He said: "We wanted to extend it to give more people a say but we were told that it could not be extended because the timetable was too tight.

"When you consider the strength of feeling shown at the last full council meeting, I think it's pretty clear the Conservatives just didn't want to get criticised anymore.

"If there's time to spare then the public should have been given a real chance to have their say. If there isn't then we are jeopardising the town's future through indecision."

Councillor Denman said the deferment is partly down to a delay in receiving a consultation response from Sport England on the use of playing fields for development.

But she dismissed the suggestion that the delay is partly down to recent personal squabbles within the Conservative group as "absolutely stupid".

Cllr Denman added that the council needs longer to consider the issue of affordable housing.

She said: "We really need to get under the skin of that [affordable housing] and not bounce into a decision.

"We are also waiting on evidence from Sport England. When you develop plans with consultees, sometimes their responses can take a while to come through."

Cllr Lamb said that the delay is a sign of the "chaos" within the Tory group and that it is "taking a risk" with the deferment.

He said: "Even if we can complete the local plan with an extension, the real problem is that no one is currently running the council – the town has been left adrift for months now."