Published: 06 January 2026
From: Democracy
Crawley Borough Council is set to hold an Extraordinary Full Council meeting to debate whether to ask the Secretary of State to postpone borough elections in 2026. The meeting will be held on 14 January.
On 18 December, the council received a letter from the Minister of State for Local Government and Homelessness asking the Leader of the Council to provide a view on whether local government elections should be postponed, releasing essential capacity to deliver Local Government Reform.
Upon this request the Leader of the Council, Councillor Michael Jones, has asked the Mayor of Crawley, Councillor Sharmila Sivarajah, to hold a meeting of the council so that the issue can be debated fully.
You may have read in the news that council areas within the devolution priority programme, which includes this one, have been written to by the Government asking for their view on whether local elections should proceed in May. While my personal view is that the elections should go ahead as planned, this is a decision I believe that needs to be collectively made due to its significance. I have therefore requested for an Extraordinary Full Council meeting to be held on this very subject. I intend to honour the will of the majority of the whole council after councillors have debated this in a public forum. For full transparency, in that Full Council vote I will personally support the option that elections should proceed.
Councillor Michael Jones
Leader
Crawley Borough Council
All the council papers can be viewed on the council's democracy website.
West Sussex is part of the government’s priority place scheme for Devolution and Local Government Reorganisation. Proposals for the reorganisation of West Sussex are currently being consulted upon. Policy and programme updates for local government reorganisation are available on the government’s website.
tags: