# 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.

## 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, the parish was further enlarged in 1953 to take in the Three Bridges area from the neighbouring parish of Worth.
The parish of Crawley was made an urban district in 1956.
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. The reformed district was awarded borough status at the same time, allowing the chair of the council to take the title of mayor.

## Governance

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

### Political control

The council has been under Labour majority control since 2022.
Political control of the council since the 1974 reforms has been as follows:
| 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 | Labour | 1974 | 1978 |
| Ben Clay | Labour | 1978 | 1980 |
| Alf Pegler | Labour | 1980 | 1982 |
| Tony Edwards | Labour | 1982 | 1983 |
| Ben Clay | Labour | 1983 | 1986 |
| Alf Pegler | Labour | 1986 | 2 Sep 1996 |
| Tony Edwards | Labour | Sep 1996 | 22 Jun 2000 |
| Chris Redmayne | Labour | 26 Jul 2000 | May 2006 |
| Bob Lanzer | Conservative | 26 May 2006 | Aug 2013 |
| Howard Bloom | Conservative | 26 Sep 2013 | May 2014 |
| Peter Lamb | Labour | 13 Jun 2014 | May 2022 |
| Michael Jones | Labour | 27 May 2022 | |

### Composition

Following the 2024 election, the composition of the council was:
| Party | Party | Councillors |
| | Labour | 25 |
| | Conservative | 11 |
| Total | Total | 36 |
The next election is due in 2026.

## 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.

## Premises

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.