And it was with a great deal of pride that I was able to accompany him and our local MP Peter Lamb on a tour of what has been achieved locally.
After a tour around the Borough on one of Metrobus’ new environmentally friendly hydrogen powered buses, which took in Manor Royal, the airport and the Town Centre, we finished at Crawley College where we had the great pleasure to talk to some of the apprentices and see what exciting things are being delivered and coming forward for bringing new and innovative skills to train up our young people.
Crawley has an enviable track record of delivering economic growth with the local facilities to match. We want to ensure that this town continues to deliver the Government's agenda – and that will mean getting right the new boundaries for the revised local authority area that covers the Borough.
Together, the boroughs of Crawley and Reigate & Banstead have an economy of £13.2bn - bigger than Brighton, bigger than Croydon with less population. We are the economic driver within the sub-region, at the heart of the Gatwick Diamond. With the right decisions around devolution and Local Government reorganisation, this successful economic growth could be turbo-charged.
We currently have a position where the local reorganisations for Sussex and Surrey respectively are on different timelines.
This doesn’t make sense if the overwhelming objective is to get this right. We would be putting a hard boundary through the middle of the biggest economic engine in the sub-region. And the limitations this might cause (or indeed perpetuate) in any devolution arrangement risks outweighing any of the perceived benefits of the economies of scale that sticking to the historic boundaries would deliver.
That is why I am extremely pleased that following our tour, Jim invited me to write to him directly setting out why Crawley Borough and the surrounding area is worthy of particular consideration. I have taken him up on this offer and residents can rest assured that we will continue to speak up for their interests as this process continues at pace.