Crawley subsidising Tory West Sussex County Council

12.00.00am UTC (GMT +0000) Mon 13th Dec 2004

The Lib Dem candidate for the General Election Rupert Sheard, has attacked the split loyalty of his expected Tory opponent "The Conservative's have a parliamentary candidate that has split loyalties. He is the leader of the West Sussex County Council that has continually taken more money from Crawley than it invests in the town. Under the Conservatives Crawley continues to subsidise the leafy shires and affluent areas of West Sussex.

"That can never be right and I call on the Conservative candidate to spell out where his first loyalty lies. Crawley or West Sussex? And if he says he will put Crawley first then what will he do to reduce Crawley's subsidy of the rest of West Sussex? If that subsidy is reduced then Council Tax for Crawley's residents will go down and not up.