Crawley Borough Council Shifts Budget Priorities As Covid-19 Costs Bite

Fees for some council services in Crawley are going up, and the paid-for "superloos" will close, as the Borough Council tries to plug a £2m funding gap caused by Covid-connected losses.

Borough councillors said the savings they'd agreed on were "significant" but necessary to mitigate the impact of the coronavirus on the council's budget.

In a statement, the local authority said that government grants were insufficient to eliminate completely the pandemic's toll on the council's main sources of income.

The missing £2m is equivalent to one-seventh of the authority's total net revenue.
 
According to officials, while two-thirds of this gap has been closed through back-office efficiencies, councillors were left with the decision of choosing cuts and efficiencies, to bring the whole budget into line.

Their decisions came after a public consultation, where 1,200 residents reportedly gave their views on potential service changes.

The council added that, in the spirit of the co-operative agreement reached earlier this year, the savings were jointly agreed by Crawley Borough Council's Cabinet and Shadow Cabinet.

An area of contention was always to be alterations to waste collections — and, only for the time being, there's expected to be no change.

Crawley Borough Council's spokesperson said:

"While a move to fortnightly waste collections — the least popular option in the consultation — will not be progressed at this time, it's expected to be an inevitable change in the medium term as new legislation around waste is introduced, as well as the need to increase recycling rates and reduce waste going to landfill."
 
On play, councillors agreed to what they called "a more flexible model of delivery", which they said was "better targeted at the needs of the community".
 
This means that Cherry Lane and Waterlea Adventure Playgrounds will be converted into unsupervised play areas while Creasys Drive Adventure Playground in Broadfield and Millpond Adventure Playground in Bewbush will be closed.

New capital funding has been promised to build alternative play provision in Broadfield and Bewbush.
 
Councillors also agreed to:

• Reduce the grant funding available for community and voluntary sector bids
• Close all five fee-charging 'superloos' in Crawley, leaving the nine free public toilets open around the town
• Support greater self-management by clubs and increase income from the hire of the borough's fine turf pitches 
• Price fees and charges more competitively
• Internal efficiency reviews to generate further savings.

The authority claimed these savings are necessary despite the redevelopment of the Town Hall site being set in the next few years to both generate significant new income for the council and reduce the council's running costs.
 
Councillor Peter Lamb (Labour), Leader of the Council, said:

"For six years, Crawley has stood alone in maintaining all our services, despite annual cuts to our grant.

"We've managed this by generating new income streams to make up for the money we've lost.

"Unfortunately, this simply isn't an option in a pandemic, leaving us with no alternative to making savings.

"We've listened to the public feedback on the options and tried to make savings as painless as possible, but ultimately you can't cut a seventh of a council's budget without it being felt somewhere."

Councillor Duncan Crow (Conservative), Leader of the Opposition, said:

"Thank you to everyone who took part in the consultation that helped to inform us.

"Covid-19 has brought unprecedented financial challenges to local government and while there are parts of the budget that in normal times we would prefer not to reduce, we've all worked hard to come up with a budget that keeps the council on a sound financial footing and that will protect key services for Crawley residents."