Labour Mayor is just that - Labour's Mayor and not Crawley's

3.09.41am UTC (GMT +0000) Sat 3rd Jul 2004

As a result of having the majority of Councillors (but less than 40% of the votes) Labour have once again appointed the Mayor from amongst one of their own number.

Jim Smith will no doubt prove to be a good Mayor for Crawley, after all he's done the job several times before, but the fact that his party only ever proposes a Mayor from their own party means he can never truly be called Crawley's Mayor. This is especially so when Labour only have minority support at the ballot box.

Most Councils now run a system where the Mayor is elected from amongst all the Council groups and not just the group with the most Councillors. The methods are varied but are normally either based on a system of points (reflecting the number of Councillors elected from each party over the years); or the longest serving Councillor or a combination of both.

As Lib Dem Councillor Gordon Seekings said "Crawley Borough Council, once again, shows that it is not prepared to modernise. It is reflective of the old style arrogance of divine rule that Labour were once so proud to be opposed to. Now, Crawley Labour Councillors seem to be more conservative than the Conservative Party!"