State of Crawley debate

7.07.00pm UTC (GMT +0000) Thu 2nd Nov 2006

Liberal Democrat Councillor, Gordon Seekings

Gordon Seekings, representing the Liberal Democrats, took part in the State of Crawley debate yesterday evening organised by Crawley Borough Council. The debate, with nearly 100 residents representing Crawley's many special interest groups, was intended to be the first of similar annual events. The debate, led by the leaders of the three political groups on Crawley Borough Council, looked at the town as it is now and the aspirations for the future.

Issued raised were wide ranging and included subjects as diverse issues as a new hospital, mental health needs, care for the elderly, a heritage centre, grass cutting, housing needs, sites for Travellers and more specific requirements for particular groups.

As Gordon said during the debate "We have in this area over 14,000 people with a limiting long term illness, we have over 1,500 residents who receive more than 50 hours or more unpaid care from friends or relatives, we have a duty of care to all the residents of Crawley."

At the end of the debate each of the political leaders commented on the debate as they saw it. Gordon said he was not sure whether to be disappointed or pleased that one issue he thought would be raised wasn't and that was the issue of Crawley now being a multicultural and multiracial society. "We have a town of 100,000 people with 10% of the population claiming they are from an ethnic minority. No one has raised any issues around that subject which means that there are either no problems or we have not covered the issue as we should have done. My fervent hope is that we accept and rejoice in the fact we live in a multicultural and multiracial society. Most of Crawley's residents I believe recognise that - and especially the 2,500 households that are made up of people from two or more different ethnic groups."

The full debate was recorded and can be found as a pod-cast on www.crawley.gov.uk.